


stranded

by justme (silver_spring)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cheesy, F/M, JBweek2019, abandon the notion of realism ye who enter here, and fluff, but it's fanfic and anything goes in fanfic, even survival without tools, one or two jokes are in there I'm almost sure, weather-ex-machina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-08 01:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20826872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_spring/pseuds/justme
Summary: All Brienne had wanted was to see some sights during her vacation..in hindsight, she should've taken a ferry instead of a plane. But at least she's not alone..(Pretty much what the title says. JB, stranded on an island.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to JB week 2019.  
(As always, it doesn't really have to do anything with the mottos or themes---although, come to think of it, at least chapter 1 could fall under freaky weather...)
> 
> I've always wanted to do this trope and I had fun writing it (when I wasn't dealing with the dreaded writer's block, that is) so if you have at least some fun reading it, it's what I'd call a win-win situation.  
Unbetaed.
> 
> Happy JB week everyone!!! :)

She was going to die.

  
Brienne Tarth gripped the sides of her plane seat so hard it was going to be only a matter of little time before either her nails or the leather broke. The pilot had announced they were about to 'maybe experience some turbulences' a few minutes ago and the small cabin had started to shake violently only moments after that. She figured that any second now her life would start to flash before her eyes although she wasn't quite sure how that was going to work exactly since she was too panicky to close them or keep them still. Apart from her eyes and her fast and shallow breathing, Brienne's whole body seemed to have frozen. Her mind, however, was racing, even if it were the same three thoughts that kept repeating themselves: _I'm going to die, I'm never going to see dad again and why, oh why didn't I stay at home?_

Take a vacation, her friend Margaery had said. Indulge yourself, you've earned it. Live a little and be spontaneous for once in your life. And she had been right, Brienne knew. It wasn't Marge's fault. The decision to go exploring the Summer Isles after having finally completed a long project had been her own. Exploring alone, since Margaery, in her function as best friend, couldn't get the time off and Brienne wasn't really close enough to anyone else to consider asking them to go on holiday together. And it had been a wonderful vacation, her impending death not included of course. She'd seen great places, tried wonderful foreign food, and experienced strange new customs. In retrospective, she'd do it all again. Except for making the decision that would now lead to her doom; booking a sightseeing flight over a few of the smallest southern isles off the grid of what was on the maps of Westeros.

To be fair, it wasn't the pilot's fault either. After all, he would undoubtedly get smashed to bits and pieces too. The plane itself, a middle-aged Cessna 182 with the name of _Golden Goose_, had seemed well kept and sturdy enough. And last, but not least, the weather had been fine when they'd taken off. The dark clouds now surrounding them had practically come out of nowhere. No matter where Brienne's frantic gaze flickered to, outside everything was almost black, the only light coming from lightning every few seconds.

"We're going to die!" One of the prominent three thoughts finally made it past her lips, screamed in a voice she barely recognized as her own. It sounded way too high pitched and shrill to belong to her.  
"No one's dying!" The pilot snarled, never taking his eyes off what was in front of them.

He kept pulling levers and pushing buttons while trying to steer against the wind and torrents of rain. Brienne didn't believe him one bit and not just because they had gotten off to a bad start; after all, she was willing to forgive and forget everything as long as he managed to get them out of this weather.

  
_When Brienne had walked into the small airfield building with the faded out poster advertising scenic flights for the duration of three hours at a real bargain price, the Golden Goose had been the only plane around. And the pilot the only person. He had been sitting behind an old desk, feet propped up on the table, reading some magazine and not acknowledging her until she had coughed at least three times. Even then, he only lowered his reading material enough for her to see a dirty basecap hiding, what it looked like, blonde hair and, a little further down, green eyes squinting at her._

_"Interesting fashion choice," he remarked dryly. Brienne looked down at herself. A t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. What was odd about that? From what she could make out, he wore a similar outfit._  
_ "I mean, you do your thing, whatever, but not everyone would choose to wear something so tight it highlights his moobs," he continued._  
_ "Excuse me?!" Brienne exclaimed indignantly, her head snapping back up to glare at the rude man, which probably wasn't that good of an angry glare, seeing as she could already feel her cheeks heating up into a massive blush._  
_ "Gods, you're a woman!"_  
_ "Of course I'm a-- forget it."_  
_ "Aww, come on! It was an honest mistake, mistaking you for a hot second. You can't tell me it's never ever happened to you before."_

_And to be honest, she couldn't. Her height, short, just long enough to tie it in the back, hair, muscular build, the fact that she almost never wore any make-up other than mascara unless the occasion forced her and her twice-before broken nose were all reasons it had in fact happened to her before. More than once. That didn't mean it didn't sting anymore. Or make her blush even worse. The pilot seemed to enjoy the changing shades of red on her cheeks; he just kept smirking at her for what felt like half an eternity, one brow raised, before he finally, thankfully, changed topics._

_"So, I'm guessing you want a tour?" He asked, finally putting the magazine away and taking his feet off the table._  
_ "I think I'll wait for another pilot," Brienne decided._  
_ "You'll be waiting a while. I'm the only one."_  
_ "Can I make an appointment with someone for another day then?"_  
_ "Still gonna be me," he shrugged._  
_ "I see. Thank you for your time," Brienne replied politely and turned to go._  
_ "In fact, I'm the only one on this teeny tiny island.." he called after her, making her stop in her steps,"..so if you really want to see all the other, even tinier, isles from above.."_

_Brienne **had** really wanted to see the southern isles from above. There was still a week of her vacation left, but hopping from small isle to small isle with a ferry seemed like a waste of time and money when all she wanted was to just see them once and get an estimation on how far they stretched out past the point where her old school atlas had ended. However, this pilot was obnoxious and sharing three hours in a cramped space with him was not something she wanted. Then again, his airfare truly was cheap and how much could he even talk when he was busy flying a plane?_

_"Look, I'm sorry about just now," the pilot continued, trying to sway her, "Tell you something: I'll throw in an extra 30 minutes for free to make up for it. Sound good?"_

_Brienne had looked around. While the place wasn't rundown or shabby in any way, it didn't seem like this pilot was making a lot of money here. Of course, the fact that customers weren't exactly standing in line likely had to do with his blunt-slash-rudeness and the fact that it was off-season, but he had seemed genuinely sorry just now and half an hour for free was a generous offer. After all, she wanted to get the most out of her vacation the one time she was here. So, after a long moment of deliberation, Brienne finally nodded._

_"Okay. When should I co-"_  
_ "No time like right now. Well, after I've filled out the paperwork. And assuming you're free?"_  
_ "I am."_  
_ "Excellent. Won't take but a moment. I'd offer you a seat but...as you can see, there is none."_

_He'd grabbed a blank form from a desk drawer and proceeded filling it out, asking one or two questions, while Brienne stood in front of the desk, sort of feeling like in the principal's office and already getting the money ready just to have something to do. Finally, he let her sign the paper, promptly shoved it back into another drawer, and stuffed the bills Brienne held out into his jeans' pocket._

_"Alright then, Miss ..Tarth, was it? Ready to see the world from above?"_  
_ "I think so. And what is your name?"_  
_ "You can just call me Launchpad. Launchpad McQuack." He grinned at her. "Let's go."_  
_ Gracefully leaping up from his chair, he walked over, slipping into a green plaid shirt as he went._  
_ "Good thing I filled up the tank this morning, you're a big one. Even taller than me. Not much, though."_  
_ "If you're only going to insult me again, let's call this off right now. Just return my money and I'll be gone"_  
_ "Can't do," he replied, continuing to walk over to the plane._  
_ "What? Why?" Brienne asked, stopping in her tracks._  
_ "As the poster says: No refunds."_  
_ "It doesn't say that at all."_  
_ In fact, it didn't say anything but "Scenic flights, three hours. Ask inside" and the price plus a rather large 'Cash only'._  
_ "Oh but it does. Granted, it's written in very small letters and the color is almost identical to the background, but it's on there. I can show you."_  
_ "That's unfair practice," Brienne stated, her hands on her hips._  
_ "Yeah, well..my kids have to eat. Hop in, I'll finish getting her ready."_

  
_ The first 90 minutes or so of their flight had been pleasant enough. Once he got behind the steering stick, the pilot, she refused to call him or refer to him by a comic character's name, became a professional. He was focused on handling the plane, answered what questions she had politely and without any jokes at her expanse and seemed a knowledgeable tourguide. The landscape in front of and beneath them was beautiful. The vast sea almost as sapphire blue as it was around her home island of Tarth. The isles they flew over created an interesting pattern within the glittering blue waters and stretched out so much further down south than she had imagined. Granted, some of them were truly tiny, but there had to be at least five dozen of them and that was only what Brienne could actually see or make out in the distance. She had truly enjoyed herself and the flight._

_"Hey, I'm not trying to rip you off or anything, but we need to turn around. There's a storm brewing. See?"_

_Pilot guy had pointed ahead to a cluster of dark clouds on the horizon. They didn't seem like an imminent threat, but having grown up by the seashore, Brienne knew how fast these things could change. It was a little disappointing, but there was nothing for it. At least, she'd gotten to see some._

_"Sorry bout that. Maybe we'll experience some turbulences. Shouldn't be a problem, though."_  
_ It had quickly turned into one. The relatively small cluster of clouds, now behind them after the pilot had turned the plane around, became a solid dark grey front within a few minutes, catching up to them soon aided by strong winds, finally surrounding the Golden Goose, and enclosing it in torrential downpour, lightning and thunder.._

"All fucking seven hells!"  
"What? What is it?!"  
"This might get hairy after all. Under your seat: Life jacket. Put it on."  
"Wha--"_ What for?_ Brienne wanted to say. Surely, her dead body didn't need the ability to float any better than a dead body floated already on its own. That thought made the words get stuck in her throat. The pilot gave off another string of colorful curses, something about the Warrior's balls, took his right hand off the steering stick, shoved it under her seat, pulled out a bright yellow vest and smacked that against her chest.  
"Put. it. on. now!"

Loosening her death grip on the plane seat, Brienne unclicked her seatbelt and slipped into the life jacket.

"And buckle in again!"

As far as that went, at least, she was ahead of him, having already closed the belt again and gripping the seat once more.

"What about you?!"  
"I'm sort of busy right now!"

And then, everything happened fast. A squall from the side threw the machine out of balance.

"I can't get her stabilized!" The pilot yelled. "Hold on tight Sunshine, we're going down!"  
"Oh Gods!"

Brienne finally managed to close her eyes. This was the end, then. She didn't want it to be the last thing she saw, and tried to dig up a good memory instead as her last thought in this world. She didn't see, only felt, the plane going upside down and starting to spiral towards the sea. For a split second she was grateful she wasn't alone, but just as soon she felt ashamed for thinking it, because it meant another person was about to lose their life along with her. She tried to conjure up the image of her father in her mind's eye, his warm smile, the lines life had carved into his face, the calloused strong hands that were always so gentle when he had brushed the hair out of her eyes or hugged her, and wanted to cry.

"I'm so sorry, dad," she whispered.

  
And then they hit the surface.


	2. Chapter 2

The impact first pressed Brienne back against her seat, propelled her then forward, making the seatbelt cut sharply into her skin and slamming her head against the dashboard, taking her breath away for a too long moment, and finally snapped her back again. Glass burst. Someone screamed. Everything hurt. But, she wasn't dead and that realization made her eyes pop open again. It seemed a miracle, but the plane had not shattered into a million pieces. Brienne had no idea how he'd done it, but the pilot must've gotten the machine back under control shortly before it touched down, hitting the water at an angle which kept the Golden Goose more or less in one piece.

However, it was filling up with water, and fast.

"Out, out!" The pilot was alive too, thank the Gods.

Brienne brought her shaking hands to the seatbelt, fumbling to get it open, but when she finally had managed and tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge against the water outside.

"It's stuck!" She screamed.

"Windshield!" He yelled back.

Brienne didn't hesitate and pushed out of her seat. Her head was pounding horribly with every frantic beat of her heart in the place where she'd hit it against the dashboard. She hectically tried to stand up as much as possible in the small cabin, already filled with sea water halfway up to her knees and scrambled towards the broken windshield. It was a tight fit with her size, but she managed to climb through. Pain shot through her left leg as she cut the side of her calf on a shard of broken glass. It was still storming and pouring and she couldn't see much further than down the length of her arm. But all that didn't matter as she pulled the strings to inflate the vest while sliding sideways over the plane's nose into the ocean, barely missing the propeller. At least and at last she was out and free.

The sea water, while cool, wasn't too cold. It was however rough and she immediately was thrown around by waves and bobbed up and down, the vest the only thing that kept her from going and staying under. Salt water prickled on her face and burned in her eyes; she kept wiping and rubbing them as she craned her neck around, trying to see where the pilot was, and unable to find him. But he'd been alive, he'd spoken to her. He had to be here somewhere! A terrible thought flashed through Brienne's mind. Maybe his seatbelt hadn't opened and he was dying this very moment, drowning, now that the Golden Goose she thought she could finally make out was sinking beneath the water's surface. The waves had already pushed her further away from the plane than she'd expected and while she usually was a strong swimmer, there was no way she would make it back to the spot where it may just have disappeared from in the amount of time someone trapped within the wreck could possibly hold their breath. Not in these conditions.

But she had to try.

Fighting against the waves and the current, Brienne tried to make it back, hoping she was going for the right spot, having to stop every few strokes to wipe the burning out of her eyes. There must've been some minor cuts on her face too because her cheek was hurting as well. She had no idea how much time had passed; it felt like mere seconds since the plane had crashed, but an eternity since it had sunken. All she knew was she wasn't getting there fast enough.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the sky for a split second, and in that second Brienne saw something yellow out of the corner of her eyes, to the right of her, closer to her than to the point that she was aiming for. Yellow like her very own life jacket. The pilot!

"Over here!" She yelled in time with the thunder, but got no answer. Changing directions, she swam towards the yellow vest that was helplessly drifting in the water like an unanchored buoy. Upon reaching him, she understood why he hadn't answered. He eyes were closed and he was bleeding from a laceration close to his temple. His vest was inflated though and he seemed to also wear a strap underneath it, connected to a waterproof bag the size of a satchel. Brienne used the bag to pull him the last inches towards her.

_Please don't be dead Please don't be dead_, she repeated on loop in her mind.

It was no use trying to feel his pulse, the way they still were thrown around by the swell, she couldn't hold her fingertips longer than a few seconds to his neck before they were pulled apart again, the bag now acting as a lifeline between them she used to pull them together again. The next time she was right in front of him, she held her hand up close to his mouth and nose. Warm air hit her wet palm two, three times in regular intervals before she began to drift away again. He was unconscious, maybe concussed or worse, but he was alive.

What now? How long would they have to hold out until help came? How long could they? Brienne couldn't even remember if the pilot had managed to send out a mayday in all the chaos. She felt prickling down her spine, cold followed by hot, the telltale sign that she was about to go into full panic mode. She would not allow it. Not now, not after everything. She had not just survived a plane crash to now lose her wits! Besides, she had not only herself to take care of, but the pilot too. Help would come, they would be saved and that was that. She just needed to hold on until then. Persevere. The Gods surely weren't so cruel as to let someone live through this only to let them die immediately afterwards. She held on to these thoughts, all the while clinging to the bag, hoping the material proved to be tear-resistant, finally wrapping her wrist with the strap twice so that they wouldn't drift apart again. There was nothing to do but wait. Swimming into one direction was pointless; with no compass she could be using up her energy to make it even worse for them by choosing the wrong direction. At least the rain seemed to finally let up a little and the winds seemed to become weaker.

"We'll be okay. We'll be fine." Brienne knew the pilot wouldn't hear her, but she needed to hear it spoken out loud herself. Then, however, to her surprise and joy, there came a deep groan from her right side. She once more used the bag to pull them close together.

"Hey? Hey! Can you hear me? You have to stay awake!"

"Dead?" He asked with a croak.

"No! No, you're not dead. We're alive. Open your eyes!"

"Don' wanna.." He mumbled. Well, at least he was coherent. Sort of.

"You have to!"

But he had already nodded off again. Whatever blow he'd suffered to the head must've been bad and floating in the choppy sea surely wasn't going to improve his condition. Maybe rest would help him; after all there wasn't anything he could've done or anything she could do for him anyway.

Brienne had no measure of time, it could have been minutes or hours before a small sliver of sunlight finally came through the thick clouds on the horizon and the rain let up into a slight drizzle. It certainly felt like an eternity. Still no sign of a boat or a helicopter. The pilot had occasionally groaned or muttered something unintelligible, but apart from that, she sound of the waves was the only thing she heard. She was thirsty and the water slowly, but surely was undercooling them. Rather sooner than later, hypothermia would become a serious issue. It was hard to not give into desolation. Brienne looked to the sky, her lids becoming heavy, while they were drifting and drifting..

When her eyes snapped open again, there was no change in their situation. Brienne had no idea how much time had passed since she'd rested her eyes. Where was help?! It took her a while to realize it when a new sound became audible. When she did however, hope ran through her like a live wire. Birds. They had to come from and land somewhere, didn't they? She turned her head from one side to the other and.. there it was, in the distance. An isle. That was, what? About 500-600 yards? Maybe even close to a mile? She could make a few hundred yards, had done similar distances a few times off the shore of Tarth when she was still in school, and while she hadn't done any open water swimming lately, she was strong, didn't have any severe injuries and the sea had calmed down a lot from before. But strong enough to be dragging the pilot's pretty much dead weight? Brienne shook the thought off. It was pointless to think about that. No matter how far, she would make it, simply because she had to, period. Untangling her wrist and getting behind him, she wrapped one arm around his waist to secure him and moved into a backstroke position, making sure to support his back with her hip to help keep him afloat.

"Here we go," she muttered and began.

Brienne's muscles became sore a lot sooner than she would have expected, definitely a lot sooner than she would've liked. Twice she'd had to change arms already, and they hadn't even made it a third of the way yet. Looked like she had to make the rest of the distance running on stubbornness alone. The pilot hadn't fully awoken, but every now and then she felt him trying to consciously move his legs, doing a few legstrokes, more hindering than helping, before he was still again. She tried to keep her mind blank, think of nothing but the next arm stroke, the next kick. One more, two, five..whenever she got to 100, she switched arms, allowing for only the shortest of breaks, knowing it would be much harder to continue the longer she paused. It seemed neverending. Brienne's legs felt like lead, her breath had become so labored she wheezed with every exhale. One more. One more. Just one more, you can do this!

When she realized she was finally close to the shore, that she was going to make it, she was too exhausted to even be relieved or joyful. She would've loved to get some second wind upon the prospect of having solid ground under her feet again, but she simply was too bone-weary. Her arms seemed to weigh a ton each and the one currently doing the strokes chafed against her vest with every rotation. At least the current was now actually helping her, the waves pushing them towards their destination.

The first time she tried to stand in the silt, her legs wouldn't hold her and she fell back into the water, her cut calf stinging once more. Brienne gritted her teeth, and tried again. The second time, locking her knees, she managed to stay on her feet, though her whole legs shook badly. She looked out to the ocean with determination. She had made it so far, she was not going to fail now. Making slow baby steps backwards, she pulled the pilot with her to the point where the water became so shallow she would have to actively drag him. Putting her arms under his armpits, she pulled and made it barely a foot, before she landed on her ass. She yelped and the pilot gave another groan as his upper body fell back.

"You need to help me now. I can't - you're too heavy," Brienne gasped as she shakily got up again. He slowly nodded once and she could see him trying to prop his feet up and into the wet sand.

"Okay," she instructed, "On three. One, two.." On three she heaved with all her might, screaming from the exertion. When she landed on her ass again, she remained where she was. It was done. They were far enough out of the water to not get dragged in again by a wave. Brienne took deep breaths, digging her pruny fingers into the dry sand, the tiniest smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. It was only sand and it was already running through her fingers as she lifted them, but to her it was more solid than the best valyrian steel.

"We've made it. We've truly made it. You hear me? Hey..uh.."

_Oh whatever. Why not.._

"Launchpad? McQuack!"

"Jaime. My name is Jaime," the pilot croaked and promptly went silent again, eyes closed. Seeing that he was okay under the circumstances and that they were safe enough for the time being, Brienne followed his example and sank back into the sand, her exhaustion quickly catching up with her. She was out within moments.


	3. Chapter 3

When Brienne woke again, it was dark and peaceful. Quiet. She had one blissful moment before she remembered why she was not lying in her hotel bed but on a beach and everything that had happened to make it so. The crash, the fear, the exhaustion, the pain. Her whole body felt like she'd been put through a meat grinder and she was parched. Her head was throbbing, probably because of dehydration. Slowly sitting up and feeling a hundred years old while doing so, she wiped the sand off her cheek and looked to the left. Launchp--Jaime, she corrected herself, was still lying next to her. However, he was awake or had woken up through her movement, and was looking right at her as far as she could make out in the pale moonlight.

"How did we end up here?" He rasped.

Brienne cleared her throat and winced. It felt like sandpaper.

"Sheer luck, for the most part, I think," she replied, though it came out more as a whisper.  
"I don't remember much after the Goose went down. I was still trying to get out when it sank, hit my head real hard underwater and everything went black. After that, just bits and pieces..all kinda blurry."  
"How are you feeling now?"  
"Like shit, so probably not even too bad under the circumstances, I think. Got a headache. You?"  
"Same. Thirsty. Sore."

Jaime slowly sat up too and pulled his bag close.

"Yeah, as soon as the sun is up we'll have to try and find water. Otherwise your whole heroic act of rescuing us both will have been for naught. Until then, we better make this last."

Opening his satchel, he pulled out the most beautiful thing Brienne had seen in a while. A yet unopened one liter bottle of water.

"Oh my gods! How..why?"  
"I wish I could say it's a fancy emergency kit, but it's actually just a crappy one. That's why I was still in the plane when it went under; had to get my stuff. Here: You go first. Small sips, okay?"

He passed her the bottle, Brienne broke the seal and took her first mouthful. It tasted like liquid heaven. All seven of them at once. She squished the water around in her mouth to wet it before swallowing, taking a second and third sip and finally passing the bottle back to Jaime. She was positive that she could've emptied the whole thing without setting down the bottle once, but he was right. They had to make it last and pace themselves.

"What else have you got in there?" She asked curiously. Her throat felt already somewhat better and the head was throbbing not as horribly.  
"Not as much as I'd like to," Jaime answered between sips. "This bottle of water, some gum, a lighter, valyrian army knife and a few generic painkillers. That's it. I tried to grab the actual first aid kit, but..the water was faster."  
"That's plenty. By tonight, we'll have been rescued. I mean, probably; they should be able to find us soon enough, shouldn't they? Did you manage to send a mayday?"  
"I was just about to when... so.. unfortunately no."

That was too bad, but considering they had survived the crash, escaped the sinking plane alive and made it to solid land, Brienne opted to stay positive instead.

"Well, we can't be that far from the crash site and they should be able to locate us via that blackbox thing. That still signals even after a plane crashes, right?"  
"..Right" Jaime replied, looking away and out to the ocean that now was nothing but a vast, calm black mass in front of them. "So..tell me about how you managed to drag both our asses here?"

They passed the water bottle back and forth, taking small sips until it was about halfway empty, while Brienne told him everything that had happened when he'd been more or less unconscious. Not that it was that long of a story.

".. and then I fell asleep;" she ended, shrugging, "that's all."  
"No, no, no, don't do that. Don't play it down like it's no big deal. It's a huge deal, what you did. Not everyone would have dragged me along but rather left me behind to save themselves when it got tough. I sure as fuck wouldn't even have been awake to realize it. So, thank you. Truly. Thanks. You saved my life."  
Never quite knowing how to respond to compliments or praise, Brienne left it at a nod.   
"How is your head now?" she asked.

Jaime gingerly touched his temple.

"Feels kinda...crusty? I guess the brain is still where it's supposed to be. Still hurts in any case."  
"Why don't you take some of those painkillers and try to sleep it off some more? I'll wake you when the sun is up."

He shook his head and promply winced.

"No, I couldn't..you've done enough already, it's about time I do something to help. You sleep some more."  
"Honestly, I'm wide awake now. And you'll help the both of us a lot more when you're rested. And painfree."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Absolutely," Brienne confirmed. Jaime thought about it for a long moment before he finally conceded.  
"Alright, but as soon as the first sliver of light comes up, you wake me. Okay?"  
"Okay."

He took another sip of water and lay back, trying to get somewhat comfortable on the sand.

"You forgot to take the aspirin," Brienne said when he didn't grab for his bag.  
"No, I'm saving it. I'll be fine. It's bad, but I've had worse."

She was about to tell him that there was no point in playing the pain-resistant hero when they surely would be off this island come the next evening, but before she could, another thought popped into her head.

"Dammit! What if you're concussed after all?"  
"I'm not," Jaime mumbled back.  
"How do you know?"  
"I already slept a lot and I woke up again, didn't I?"  
"Maybe that was just luck."  
"Considering this is probably my luckiest day ever, I'll take my chances. Now hush."

It couldn't have been that long until sunrise; Brienne could already hear birds chirping. Therefore, so she figured, what little nap time he got now, wouldn't make him worse if sleeping for hours hadn't done so. She sat there, looking up to the sky. Crystal clear. The moon was still almost full and the stars were twinkling. It was still a little chilly, but that came from it being night, not bad weather.

  
When she was sure Jaime was fast asleep, Brienne got up and walked a few yards. Her leg muscles protested vehemently and reminded her with each step what tremendous work they had done within the last day, but she couldn't just remain sitting. Besides, she was going to have to walk a whole lot more today, best to show those legs who was boss right away.

Brienne only hoped that no one informed her father of what had happened before they were found and brought back. He'd lost one child, her older brother Galladon, to the sea already; the thought of that tragic history repeating itself with his last remaining child would be devastating for him. Galladon had only been eight when he'd drowned, it had happened more than twenty years ago and to this day her father, even though living on an island, had never put his foot into the open water again. If it weren't for the memories of happier days, when they'd been a family, he probably would've left Tarth years ago.

The thought of her poor dad worrying about having lost another child to the ocean brought tears to Brienne's eyes. She didn't wipe them away. There was no one to see them; Jaime was sleeping a few metres back. The facts about her current situation made the tears only come harder and she finally sunk down into the sand again to let it all out. She had been in a plane crash. A flippin' plane crash! She could've died today! And now she was currently stranded on an island. With only a man she didn't know as company. Brienne silently, but fervently prayed to all the Gods she could think of, asking, begging to let her and Jaime be found and saved today or for them to find someone living here.

When the sun finally came up, Brienne wiped her face and dutifully went back to her sleeping companion to wake him after inspecting her own injuries as best as she could and deeming them minor. Gently shaking his shoulder, it didn't take long until Jaime came round. He looked at her for a second, before his eyes became wide.

"Who are you? Wh--where am I?" He called while he sat up, looking frantically around.  
"Oh Gods!" Brienne exclaimed, once more feeling the beginning of panic. She was just starting to pick her brain for anything on concussions and memory loss when Jaime began snickering.  
"Relax, I'm just fucking with you. I know where I, unfortunately, am."  
"You asshole!" Brienne wasn't one for cussing, but there were times when even she forgot herself. She was tempted to smack his shoulder, too.  
"You know you set yourself up for that one," Jaime grinned, running his hand through his hair to get any sand out.  
"It was cruel!"  
"It was just a joke, come on."  
"It wasn't funny."  
"Depends on the viewpoint, really."  
"Don't ever do that again," Brienne insisted.  
"I don't make promises unless I intend to keep them. But let's move on."

Jaime grabbed the bottle again and they each had a big sip, for breakfast.

"So, how's my head look?" he asked, turning sideways, so that Brienne could see in the morning light.

The two inch gash was covered by a scab, which looked indeed crusty. The sea water likely had flushed the wound out nicely. It was going to heal.

"I can't see your brain, so that's good, I think."  
"I concur. It's good indeed. I like my brain, had it my whole life. And the headache's almost gone, too. Well, sun's up,so we better get started. Too bad the plane went down and no wreckage was washed ashore. That could've helped with shelter. I'm not exactly an architect."  
"Perhaps it won't even be necessary. There might be a fancy hotel on the other side of the island for all we know."  
"Sorry to burst that bubble, but no. Anything but the ten biggest islands is not populated and they're all up north. The rest is too small for infrastructure and while some might even enjoy the quiet, the government slapped a building ban on the small isles because some are cultural heritage sites from the old days and others are nature reserves, so there are no hotels. Or anything since the shipping routes go by further out. They're not interesting for people. Technically, I think we're actually trespassing right now."

Well, crap. There went that hope.

"Shelter isn't our first step anyway, so lets think about it if we need to. Do you have any survival experience?" Brienne asked.  
"Apart from binge watching three seasons of _Jorah Mormont against the wilderness_ that one time, no. You?"  
"I used to camp outside sometimes back home, but I had gear and..stuff."

_And always the option of just packing it in and go back inside.._

"Well, Jorah always said the key to survival is being able to adapt and endure anyway."  
"Where should we even begin?" Brienne asked, looking around them.   
"Our main objective definitely is finding drinkable water. If we come across anything edible while we're doing that, all the better."  
"That Jorah Mormont guy didn't happen to have an episode on edible plants on the Summer Isles, did he?"  
"Afraid not. So..just pick a direction, I guess?"  
"We should start with the trees; their roots have to get water from somewhere," Brienne decided, pointing behind them.  
"Good point," Jaime agreed, "Foliage it is."

  
Leaving their bright lifevests on the beach, so that there was at least some sign there were people here on the off-chance of a passing boat after the storm, they began their excursion. 


	4. Chapter 4

The walk was very slow. Both of them were still so damn exhausted from the last day in their own way. Only a few hundred feet into the greenery, Brienne could've chugged the whole remains of their water supply. Her arms and legs still bothered her; athletic as she was, she'd never had that kind of sore muscles before.

  
The island they had stranded on was actually quite beautiful. All white sandy beach and, further in, lush green palmtrees and brushes, almost like a rainforest. Looking at the sky today, it was hard to imagine the storm of yesterday. It was clear and azure, a perfect backdrop for any holiday picture. Thankfully, they didn't encounter any big or dangerous animals, only lots of birds and insects, the latter immediately declaring them dinner. Since neither of them was wearing a watch, there was no way to tell how much time had passed while they'd explored their surroundings. It certainly felt like hours. In any case, the sun was already standing quite high in the cloudless blue sky when Jaime called out for a stop.

"Wait here, I gotta take a leak."

Not waiting for an answer, he took a sharp right and disappeared between some trees. Brienne used the opportunity to sit down and rest. She'd just leaned against a tree trunk and closed her eyes, when his voice rang, sounding excited.

"Sunshine, I found food!"  
"Where? What?" Brienne asked as Jaime reappeared from behind the trees.  
"There's bushes with fruit. Over there," he said, pointing behind him. Brienne winced.  
"Please tell me you found those before you...made water.. on them."

Jaime rolled his eyes.

"I'm not an idiot. Nor am I blind. Come!"

Brienne slowly got up again, suppressing a groan. She followed Jaime and he led them to a cluster of small bushes bearing red berries.

"I know these, they're good. Bit sour, but totally fine to eat," he explained, ripping a handful of berries off the first bush.  
"You sure?" Brienne asked doubtfully. Jaime nodded.  
"I bought them at the market once, mistook them for cherries. They're called azeleas or something."  
"Azaleas are flowers," Brienne corrected, wrecking her brain for something that sounded like azeleas, but wasn't a flower, "..did you mean acerola?"  
"Yeah, that. Whatever."

Brienne tentatively bit into the small fruit, closing her eyes as the rich flavor hit her tongue, barely suppressing a groan. Yes, it was a little bit sour, but she could not have cared less. It was food, and it was heavenly. Her stomach agreed and rumbled immediately for more. Spitting the seed out into her hand and throwing it onto the ground, Brienne took another berry from the shrub. Jaime wasn't that tentative. He shoved a handful of berries into his mouth, spitting out seeds as he happily chomped away at the fruit.

"Good?" He asked, not stopping to chew.

Brienne fervently nodded.

"If these shrubs are in such good condition, there's got to be water around."

Which only made perfect sense. It was a tremendous relief. There was water, they only had to find it. They stayed for a while in the spot, eating berries, before finally stuffing a few handfuls in Jaime's satchel for later and walking on in search of a river or pond.

"So far this survival thing is turning out easier than I thought," Jaime commented during the walk, "Methinks Jorah Mormont was a bit of a drama queen."  
"Don't jinx it," Brienne cautioned, "I'd still prefer being found rather sooner than later."  
"That goes without saying. But it may take a while regardless."  
"Maybe not. Your wife is probably raising hell back on your island, making sure the search troops are out there."  
"_My what?_" Jaime sputtered, stopping in his tracks, looking at Brienne as if she'd grown a second head, "I'm not married."  
"Oh. Sorry. I just assumed because of the kids.."

Which was really stupid to assume she realized now.

"Kids? Oookay, I think we need to get you out of the sun. You're talking nonsense."  
"No, no, I'm not talking nonsense. I clearly remember how you said your kids need to eat when I wanted to cancel the tour."  
"Well.." Jaime said, scratching the back of his head, "I kinda needed the money your tour would've paid me, so...I said what I needed to in order to make you stay. Figured the mental image of hungry children was going to do the trick with you."  
"What?!" Brienne exclaimed, stopping abruptly.  
"I don't have any children. And before you ask, yes I am sure about that. Unless you adopt, which I haven't, you need a sex life to have kids and I haven't had one of those in...let's just say, a while."  
"You lied to me?" She asked, affronted.  
"Harmless white lie. Don't act so indignated. You wanted that flight, I just made sure you didn't back out. And if the plane hadn't crashed, we both would've gotten what we wanted. No harm done."  
"No harm done?"  
"I said '_if the plane hadn't crashed_', alright?"

Brienne shook her head. Being lied to was never a pleasant experience, but the fact that Jaime had invented children was not the reason the plane had gone down, therefore she could hardly be extra mad about it. Especially, since he was right: She had wanted the flight. And the knowledge that there weren't children out there right now being scared to death they might have lost their father was a good thing. Still..  
"Is there anything else you lied about?" She asked, beginning to walk again.  
"No. 'Course not. When would I have had time to do that?"  
"Don't lie to me again, okay? While we're here, we've got to be a team."  
"I know."  
"Well, I don't think my hotel is going to miss me until it's time to pay the bill, and so if you have no family or friends looking for you, we're gonna have to keep hoping someone gets close enough to pick up the signal from the blackbox," Brienne mused.  
"Yeah. ..Guess that's the best bet. At least until someone misses you."

Brienne immediately thought of her father and it made her heart lurch. She swallowed hard. Best not to dwell on him too long, lest she broke down again. She needed to stay positive and focused here.

"My friend is expecting me back in King's Landing by sunday night," she answered instead, thinking of Margaery.  
"Well, that's something then, isn't it? They'll surely investigate if you don't show up."

Brienne pondered that thought. Marge would probably make an inquiry, since she knew Brienne wasn't the type to not stick to a plan. But her vacation was supposed to last another six days; surely it wouldn't take that long to be found.

  
They wandered for a good while longer before Brienne heard the gentle sounds of water. Following the sound, they came to a small brook, about three feet wide. Jaime immediately crouched down, cupping a handful of water and lifting his hands carefully towards his face.

"Wait!" Brienne called out.  
"What?"  
"We need to make sure it's clean enough first."  
"What are you talking about, it's crystal clear."  
"There could be something in the water upstream, spoiling it."  
"Like what?"  
"Something dead or rotting? Animal feces?"  
"Great," Jaime said with an expression of disgust, dropping his cupped hands again, releasing the water back into the brook.  
"Didn't your survival show tell you this?"  
"I may have taken a couple of bathroom breaks without pausing."  
"Let's just walk for a bit, see if the brook is clean, then we can come back and use it. There will be still some bacteria regardless, but since we have no pot to boil the water in, we're just going to have to risk it."

"So, are you a doctor or something?" Jaime asked, when they set off to walk a hundred yards or so upstream.  
"Hardly. I'm an illustrator."  
"You draw picture books?"  
"Sometimes. I just finished the drawings for a special graphic novel version of Seven Knights, you know, the movie? One year of work. That's how I ended up here. The vacation was me rewarding myself."  
"Huh."  
"What?"  
"Nothing. Just wouldn't have figured that. I would've thought you had a more rigid job. Accountant, maybe. Or, you know, lab rat. Measuring exact samples or whatever."  
"What makes you say that?"  
"You're not exactly laid back."  
"Well, excuse me, but getting stranded on a deserted island will do that to a person."  
"True, but you weren't very relaxed when we met either."  
"You were rude."  
"For which I apologized."  
"And then you were rude again."  
"Was not."  
"You implied that I'm so big only a full tank would transport me."

Jaime threw her a sideways glance, eyebrow raised.

"Do you often have alternate conversations of the ones that actually happened in your head? Is that something I should be aware of when we're going to stay here together?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"I did in no way, shape or form imply you were big. I said you were tall. My brain is back to its normal capacity by now, I remember it exactly. Have we walked far enough now?"  
"I--yeah, I guess. The water looks safe enough."  
"Excellent."

They turned around and went back to the original spot. This time, Jaime didn't crouch down. He walked right into the middle of the brook, splashing himself with the shallow water, before taking another step away and drinking some.

"Come in, Sunshine, it's amazing!"  
"Do not call me Sunshine, my name is Brienne," she retorted but followed suit. The idea of fresh and cool water was too tempting to resist.

  
After they'd refreshed themselves, Jaime gave her dibs on washing up and disappeared between the trees to sit down and rest. Brienne washed the grime and sweat off as well as it was possible without soap. She was going to have to put on her sweaty clothes again anyway, but it still felt wonderful to be at least somewhat fresh, even if only for a short time. When it was her turn to go sit down, she began thinking about shelter. So far, they'd gotten two out of the three things they'd set out for done, best to keep the streak going, as long as the weather and the sun were on their side. When she got back after Jaime had called out that the air was clear, they drank the rest of the water bottle's contents and refilled it with water from the brook.

"What are we going to do about shelter? Should we keep walking and look if there's a cave anywhere?" Brienne thought aloud.  
"Might be pointless if there isn't one. Haven't seen any mountains so far in the distance. I think we should stay at least somewhat close to the water source now that we have that. We only have the one bottle to carry around between us. Besides, it's not horribly far from here to the fruit bushes."

Brienne looked around. There was the brook, about ten feet to each side a patch of moss and then trees, trees and more trees.

"Yeah, but there's not much here in terms of shelter."  
"I guess for now we just make a...lean-to, maybe?"  
"How?"  
"Ah, that one I learned from watching Mormont. Those two trees over there aren't too far apart. Let's look for long branches or something to brace between them. Something we can lean stuff against, which I guess is where the term comes from."  
  
It took the better part of what probably was the afternoon to find branches that had the right size to brace between the trunks, since they didn't have anything with them to cut down material and they both weren't in possession of their full strength. The lean-to they ended up with was very drafty and in case it rained again, it would be no shelter whatsoever. Brienne wanted to keep looking for more things to stuff the wall of the lean-to with, but the setting sun put an end to her plans.

"We'll upgrade it tomorrow. Lots of shit fell down during that storm closer to the beach, we just have to drag it here," Jaime declared when it got harder and harder to see, "Time to rest now."  
"We should still-", Brienne began, but got interrupted.  
"Whatever you're planning, it's gonna have to wait until tomorrow."  
"Fire," she stated quickly, in case he was planning to interrupt her again.  
"Tomorrow. I'm dead on my feet and my head's starting to hurt again. So? Wall-side or open view?"  
"What?"  
"Where do you want to sleep? Never let it be said that I'm not accomodating."

Brienne ended up choosing the open side. Lying down on a heap of leaves, she was tempted to groan as a octogenarian with arthritis probably would. She would definitely need a few more days to get rid of all the muscle aches. While the distant sound of the waves was not too loud where they had built their shelter, they were surrounded by unknown and strange nature noises. If it hadn't been for her tiredness, she probably would've had a much harder time falling asleep. Still, as tired as she was, it was very strange to prepare to fall asleep, with Jaime in her back.

"You know, I really wasn't expecting to share my bed with a strange man during my vacation," she mused.  
"Aww, come on, we're basically besties by now."  
"Besties? I don't even know your last name or how old you are."  
"Pffft..if that's all....it's Hill. Jaime Hill. And I'm thirty-two."  
"I'd still need more to consider you as a best friend."  
"Best island-friend then. I get that by default."

Well, he had her there. It was as good as it was going to get for tonight.  
They had a water source, the berries and even managed to build rudimentary shelter. All in a day's work. It was impressive. And yet, Brienne couldn't help but feel disappointed as she drifted off to sleep. No helicopter or boat had come. They would have to spend at least another day out here, lost and ready to be found.


	5. Chapter 5

Brienne was still counting the days, even though the disappointment grew steadily along with the number. Every morning she was sure today was the day and every evening she was disappointed. It had been more than a week now. Eight days to be exact. Her vacation had ended the day before yesterday; meanwhile the police and her father must've been informed that she was missing and he was worrying himself sick about her. However, people realizing she hadn't returned home also meant that the search for them would pick up now, it had to. That was a good thing. Surely, they would be out of here soon, back in the real world.

In other good news, they were still alive and healthy. Sure, their scarce diet had made both her and Jaime live off small portions, and they were probably already losing weight, but it was still in the tolerable margin and hadn't made either of them lose muscle mass yet. All the work around here helped keep them in shape, too. And there was a lot of that to go around. They had upgraded their shelter as best as they could, strengthening the canopy of branches, and adding walls of foliage, making it into an actual hut, crammed between trees for stability. Brienne had never known she apparently had a talent for weaving and braiding vines, but so far, the walls and canopy held. Even protected them from rain, as they'd found out two days ago when there'd been another small thunderstorm. The bushes had been plucked clean within the first three days, but they'd found more. And coconuts were ripening on various palmtrees all over the island. Also, a trial and test method had given them a few more plant options. Jaime had volunteered each time to try a small amount of something, give it time to act up in case it was not digestible, increasing portions until he could declare it either edible or not. Brienne, of course, had protested, but he would have none of it, insisting on doing his part after she'd saved him. Apart from one afternoon of him having bad stomach cramps, he'd been lucky and they hadn't had to go completely hungry yet.

Spear fishing had not gone well for either of them so far; but Brienne was not willing yet to give up on it. Every day she went to try again to catch one slippery bastard with the sharp end of a stick that she had whittled into shape with the help of Jaime's pocket knife. And every day, all she got in the end were wet pants. Jaime, at this point, merely rolled his eyes whenever he saw her grab the stick, murmuring something about her being 'stubborn as a mule'. She definitely was stubborn, always had been, but giving in just was not an option. Besides, since he'd thrown in the towel on the whole fishing with a spear thing and wasn't trying alongside her, it gave her ample opportunity to get away from him for an hour or two every day. Stranded together or not, sometimes a person needed time to themselves. Especially a person like Brienne that was used to being by themselves and working alone. It wasn't that she minded people on the whole, it was just a combination of being naturally reserved and comfortable on her own and having spent the majority of her childhood and adolescence being unpopular and not being blessed with a multitude of friends. Besides, Jaime's mood was going downhill at times and whenever it did his tongue was getting sharper, and since they were alone here, Brienne was his sole target. She tried to give right back what he dished out, but she'd always been more of a 'I had the perfect comeback...two hours later' type, so that wasn't really successful 9 out of 10 times and it was better to just get away for a time.

They also had established some routines for their day-to-day survival, or well she had established them. Brienne just felt more comfortable when there was a certain order to things and the fact that there was no exact measure of time here wasn't a reason to not stick to a schedule. After waking and going their separate ways to wash and relieve themselves, one of them went to find or fetch some plants or other food, while the other went to refill the, meanwhile trusted, plastic bottle with water for the first time that day. One meager breakfast later, they usually went on another excursion, trying to find more food or other things that could be useful and also trying to get a better estimate of how big this island was. Worked on their humble abode. Collected wood for their nightly campfire and the ones they were scattering along the beach, ready to be lit in case they needed to signal a passing ship or plane. Watched the ocean for any ships or boats. Went spear-fishing. Or not. Throughout the course of the day, one of them went to refill the bottle two or three times, they had another sparse meal and just kept hoping this all would be over the next day.

  
Currently, Brienne was once more standing in the water up to her hips, spear in hand, trying to catch something. Anything. Of all the creatures in the sea one had to be stupid enough to come close to her, merely from a statistical viewpoint, right? Honestly, she'd already be satisfied with a crab, just to have something to show for her efforts.

"Hey Sunshine!"

Brienne really hoped he would stop calling her that. It was getting on her nerves. She looked up from her task to see Jaime standing on the beach, gesticulating to her to come out of the water. He seemed rather excited, too. _Ugh_.

How could one look so...good..while being stranded without basic hygiene products? It was so unnerving. Even his beard that had been growing since they got here, was even and full without being too bushy or attempting to swallow his face. He had a glorious golden tan, whereas Brienne had gotten sunburn on the first day. And the fourth. And the sixth. She spent the days sweating away in her clothes and Mr. Tan sauntered around shirtless in cut-off jeans, enjoying the sun. Even the flies and mosquitos were more eager to get to her blood than his. So unfair. She didn't even want to know how she currently looked.

"What?" She called out while she slowly walked back to the beach. Jaime waited until she'd made it out of the water, smiling enigmatically.  
"Tonight, we will feast. I can't believe it worked," he finally declared.  
"What worked?"

_And what feast?_

"My self-built snare" He explained with a hint of pride.

That was unexpected. Brienne had had no idea he'd even attempted something like that. But the news lightened her mood immediately.

"Oh my Gods! What did you catch?"  
"It kinda looks like chicken."  
"Chicken? On a deserted island?" She asked doubtfully, because while there were birds here, she sure as heck hadn't seen any chicken in the week they'd been here. It was apparently the wrong thing to say, since the big smile on Jaime's face slid off his features and a familiar expression of disgruntlement appeared instead.  
"Looks like, I said. It's a bird. Jeez, what's with the questions? I'd have thought you'd be happy."  
"I am. I just--"  
"This is the first time we get some meat since we're here. A full stomach. I don't give a fuck what kind of bird this was, I just want to roast it."  
"Jaime, I am happy. Truly. This will be a feast, indeed. You'll have to tell me all about how you did it."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Can you not talk to me as if I were five years old and in need of positive reinforcement?"  
"I wasn't doing that."  
"I'm not so stupid as to not recognize someone being condescending when I see it."  
"I never said you were stupid."  
"It was implied."

Brienne threw her hands up in angry surrender.

"You know what? I'll go back to fishing since whatever I say apparently is wrong."  
"Yeah, why don't you do that. I'll go pluck dinner."

Brienne stomped back into the ocean while Jaime stomped into the direction of their camp. She was tempted to stick her tongue out in the direction of his retreating back. She truly hadn't meant to be patronizing, she'd just wanted to defuse the bomb before it could go off. Apparently, a plan that wasn't working. But it was hardly her fault he was so thin-skinned occasionally. The frustration over still being trapped here, Brienne could understand. Hell, she felt that too every day. But she didn't take it out on the only other person that was here with her. Not on purpose, anyway.

Taking position with her stick, she waited for a fish to swim by and maybe take it out on that.

***  
There was no fish to contribute to the feast by the time Brienne called it quits for the day. When she got back to their camp, Jaime had the bonfire going and was making a sort of spit with his pocket knife and a slim tree branch.

"No luck, huh?" He commented her coming back with empty hands.  
"Nope," Brienne replied, leaning her fishing spear against the hut's wall.  
"Well, maybe tomorrow," he shrugged. It was probably his version of an olive branch. Brienne decided to take it.  
"Yeah. Maybe tomorrow."  
"I'm ready to put the bird on the grill. If you turn it every few minutes, I'll go check the perimeter for side dishes and refill water?"  
"Sure."

Jaime grabbed a medium sized animal, and stuck it carefully on the spit. It did indeed have the shape of a chicken. Maybe a wild fowl? Whatever it was, the bird had been carefully plucked and the innards removed.

"I don't know about your cooking skills, but by all that is holy, please don't burn it," he said as he handed Brienne the spit, making it seem like he was giving her a treasure. In a way, it kinda was.  
"I can rotisserie a chicken," she assured him nevertheless with a roll of her eyes. No need to tell him that her cooking skills were more like order takeout or microwave something-skills.

Jaime gave a nod, grabbed his satchel to stow away any findings in it and went off after a long, longing glance at the still raw bird on the stick. To be honest, she couldn't wait for the thing to be cooked either and so she dutifully held it over the fire in a distance that wouldn't char it, and turned it ever so often. By the time Jaime got back, the chicken was far from being done, but it also wasn't as pale anymore. He took over the spit and Brienne went to wash the fruit, roots and leaves he'd found, and open two coconuts. It had taken a few days to perfect it, but meanwhile she was quite good at getting them out of their husks and splitting them open without losing too much of the precious coconut water. After dividing up the veggie side dish into two older, dried out coconut halves, she made two trips back to the fire, setting the old and new 'bowls' down and then just watched the food being turned, her mouth watering already at the thought of eating herself full.

  
They had no spices or herbs, no condiments or sauces, but damn if that sort-of-looks-like-chicken didn't taste fantastic.

"Ahhh, that hit just the spot, didn't it?" Jaime sighed with satisfaction after licking his fingers off the last remnants of any juice. Brienne nodded in agreement. After eight days of fruit and leaves, this chicken had been a blessing. Her stomach was pleasantly full, but not so much that she'd have to worry about any aches. Where one chicken or whatever dwelled, there were bound to be more, so chances were it wouldn't be the only feast. And there was always the possibility that she'd catch a fish or, of course, that they'd be found tomorrow. It had been a good day.

"You should stay out of the sun tomorrow. You're looking suspiciously red again already," Jaime commented eventually into the silence of two people enjoying their momentary contentment.  
"I'm fine," Brienne waved him off. It didn't feel like there had been any new additions to her various sunburns.  
"Uh, I think I can see how your face looks a little better than you."  
"It's fine, really. I feel fine."  
"Right. Gods forbid you take advice from me," he muttered sulkily. Brienne felt the light mood dissipate. It had been so nice just now, why did he have to go and try to ruin it?  
"That's not how I meant it and you know it."  
"Sure.."  
"Why are you trying to fight with me now? Everything was nice until a minute ago."  
"I'm not trying to fight. You are." He retorted.  
"Excuse me?! I was just sitting here, saying I was fine."  
"Fine. Whatever. Do what you want. But don't come whining when you look like a lobster again."

Brienne's heart gave a painful pang. Her father had used to call her his little lobster when she'd come home sunburnt as a child after spending the day in the water and he'd put aloe on her red skin. She'd tried hard to not think of him today of all days and now that he'd been brought to the forefront of her thoughts, she felt sadness rising fast.

"I'm going to the beach," she declared abruptly, getting up. She was definitely not in the mood for another verbal bout just because Jaime wanted to pick a fight. She needed to be alone right now.

"You know, if it's about to be that time of the month, you should definitely stay out of the water. There are probably sharks somewhere out there. This isn't Dorne."  
"Just shut up, will you?" Brienne growled.

Hurrying off, she barely made it out of Jaime's sight before the first tears made her view of the scenery quite blurry. Still, she trudged on to the beach, sinking down in a heap onto the sand and letting herself grieve.


	6. Chapter 6

Brienne hadn't been sitting too long, before she could hear the brush behind her rustling.

"Hey Sunshine?" Jaime cautiously called out.  
"Go away!" she called back, hectically wiping the tears away. Of course, Jaime didn't do her that favor, but plopped down in the sand next to her. She tried to look anywhere but at him, but he didn't have to catch a long glimpse of her face to know what had been going on. She tended to be a blotchy crier.

"Hey, come on. An asshole like me really is not worth crying over, you know?" he said, nudging her with his shoulder.  
"I'm not crying over you!" Brienne said emphatically.  
"Oh? Did any of the other island dwellers we live with here say something then to drive you to tears?"  
"Ha-ha," she replied dryly. Jaime sighed and stayed quiet for a moment, before he spoke.  
"Listen: I'm sorry. For before. And..in general. I don't mean to be a dick, it just sometimes happens. I mean, you do all these things, you made our...apartment... habitable..you got me here alive in the first place, you're trying every day to get some fish on the table..and I contribute practically nothing. Except for one meagre bird that's already gone. It's frustrating."  
"That's not true!" Brienne disagreed immediately, now looking at him with wide eyes. Jaime rolled his.  
"Okay, I contribute smartass commentary. Big deal."  
"Jaime, you do a lot. We would've probably starved already if you wouldn't risk your health again and again, trying to figure out if something is edible or not. Without you, we wouldn't have a fire, or--"  
"Wouldn't be stuck here in the first place," he interrupted.  
"What?!"  
Jaime took a deep breath.  
"There's something.." He began and trailed off. "I mean: I flew us out here."  
"You're not to blame for a freak storm! And, by the way, you wouldn't have flown out there if I hadn't booked a tour, so if you want to blame someone, blame me."

He shook his head.

"I'm the pilot, it was my responsibility to get you back safely."  
"You did the best you could."  
"Yeah, well, wasn't good enough," he mumbled, letting a fistful of sand slowly trickle back to the ground.  
"Is that why you're so moody? Because you think us being here is your fault?"  
"If only I'd gotten that mayday out, you could be home now. Safe and sound. If I'd checked the forecast before we took off.."  
"You need to stop with that. It's not helping, and it doesn't matter because it doesn't change anything."  
"Easier said then done."  
"Well, try. Okay? We're in the same situation and it's nobody's fault."  
"Except for the weather's?"  
"Yeah, except for the weather's. But not yours, I don't blame you one bit."

Jaime looked out to the ocean, seemingly thinking about her words. They sat a while together watching the waves roll in.

"So, if you truly didn't bawl because I'm an ass, why did you?" He finally asked.  
"It's fi--" Brienne began to smooth over the situation, but then stopped herself. Jaime had come after her to see if she was okay, had confessed what was eating at him, and apologized and all that. She sighed.  
"If I haven't miscounted the days, it'll be my dad's birthday tomorrow."  
"Oh."  
"Yeah.." Brienne said, willing the tears that were threatening to make a comeback stay back. Jaime looked like he was thinking about hugging her, but refrained from doing so for which she was grateful. There would be no holding back the tears if he'd done it and she would've so hated that. Bad enough he'd seen she'd been crying at all.  
"Shit." He summed the situation up in one perfect word for it.  
"I try not to think about it too much, but sometimes it just slips in. Like before, when you said I was starting to look like a lobster. My dad calls me that since I was a kid and got sunburn all the time. I just hate the idea of being here and him not knowing about it. Of him thinking I'm missing or dead. To have him think I drowned..especially since he needn't worry, I'm okay..ish, he only doesn't know it. I had a brother who drowned, you know?"  
"Gods. I..I wish I knew what to say. I'm sorry."  
"Dad's all I have and I am all he has. It's just...tough sometimes, thinking about it. So I try really hard not to and that lobster thing just really triggered me. You couldn't have known. So don't feel bad about it."  
"Hey..I may not know what to say, but I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it, you know? You don't have to go away. If you feel like you have to let it all out, let it out. I survived the plane crashing, I think I can handle a few tears."  
"I can't afford to be weak."  
"There's only me around to see it, and I'm never going to hold it against you."

Brienne shook her head.

"If I start, I'll go down the whole spiral of despair. Like thinking about how hopeless our situation here really is. We get by better than could be expected, we have food and water and a fire to keep away possible danger, but it's a false security. We're still potentionally just one scratch away from blood poisoning or dying in some other horrible way. And what if we stay healthy, but still no one finds us for ages? What then?"  
"I guess then we live here."  
"It's not that easy!"

There was no way she could just live here. She wasn't even thirty, there was a lot of potential 'rest of her life'. No. The thought was preposterous. Someone would find the plane's wreck or pick up the flight recorder's signal and they'd be out of here, back in civilisation, where they belonged. It was the only option she accepted.

"It's exactly that easy, Brienne. Because we have no say in whatever happens; all we can do is live from day to day and make the best of it. And I don't want to hear you say again that it's hopeless. No matter whose fault or not, we survived a plane crash that, by all rights, should've killed us. That has to mean something, it just has to."  
"But what does it mean?"  
"I have no idea. Time will tell, I guess?"

That was a very insufficient answer, but there likely wasn't going to be a better one for now.

"It better be something good," Brienne finally replied.  
"After all we've been through, I'm sure it will be. Has to. Wanna head back to our bungalow?"  
"Might as well."

Getting up and brushing the sand off their clothes, they began the walk back to their campsite. Jaime put her arm around her shoulders as they walked. It was nice. Comforting.

"For the most part, the day wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked.  
"No, for the most part it wasn't. The feast was sublime. And I really want to know all about your snares."  
"I'll show you. Tomorrow."  
"Okay."  
"Hey Brienne?"  
"Yeah?  
"If I'm being an asshole again, just tell me I'm being an asshole. I can't read your mind, you know?"  
"Noted."  
"But seriously, just in case: There are probably sharks in these waters somewhere, so once it is period time, let me know and I'll take over the fishing."  
"Jaime?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Don't be an asshole."  
"Shutting up. See? It's working already."

  
*

  
Ever since Jaime had told her how he felt responsible for their being stranded and her telling him that thinking like that was ridiculous, his mood had lifted a lot. He'd even picked up his own stick again once or twice, joining Brienne with her attempts at spear fishing. Not that his help made them more successful. Jaime, in a good or at least better mood, tended to be a babblemouth.

That was not to say that everything was sunshine and rainbows now. They still had their disagreements and afternoons where they were found away from each other. As it turned out, they both had quite a stubborn streak when they wanted to. Jaime still called her Sunshine and had the occasional flippant remark, but Brienne stuck to her word and let him know when he was being an ass. Whenever she felt overwhelmed by thoughts of home, she still wanted to be left alone, and let Jaime know she was in need of some alone time. He repeated his offer of listening every time, even though she never took him up on it. It was just not her way; she preferred to deal with things on her own.

Since their lean-to had been upgraded to a veritable hut, lopsided as it was, and since they had their routines down by now, they finally were at a point where they didn't fall asleep exhaustedly as soon as they could and also had opportunity to talk about other things than what needed to be done, and so Jaime and Brienne found themselves in front of a small bonfire in the evenings when the temperature dropped somewhat, talking about this and that. About places they'd seen, books or movies they loved, explaining the plot if the other one hadn't heard of it, and mostly and always, food..

  
"I'd give my right big toe for a double cheeseburger from Red Keep. With the curly fries. And a chocolate milkshake," Jaime said with longing, lying on his back next to the fireplace.  
"Stop it! You're giving me cravings," Brienne exclaimed with a smile from the other side of the fire and the look on Jaime's face told her that he definitely wasn't going to stop now that he knew.  
"Hell, I'd even consider giving up that toe for a kidney pie or a bowl of brown from Hot Pie's."  
"Nah, kidney pie maybe, but I wouldn't sacrifice a toe for a bowl of brown. Wait, Hot Pie's is not an international franchise, they only have restaurants in Westeros. Have you ever been?"  
"Er..born and raised."  
"Really? Which part are you from?"  
"Westerlands. You?"  
"Tarth. Stormlands. It's a--"  
"An Island in the east, I know. So, seeing as your name is Tarth, your family used to own the whole place?"  
"Yeah, a few centuries ago. Nowadays, it's only a house and a middle-sized garden. I've been living in King's Landing for years now, though. So..what brought you so far from the Westerlands? Why did you come here?"  
"Here? Well..I was on a scenic flight with this blonde amazon.."  
"You know what I mean. Why did you come to the Summer Isles?"  
"To lick the wounds given to me by ferocious lions and other wild animals."  
"You don't have any mauling scars."

Jaime snickered.

"Metaphorical wounds, Sunshine," he sighed, "I got dumped by a woman. Among other things."

Of course Brienne had known that it hadn't been a real animal, but she'd wanted him to elaborate without asking him flat-out to do so. Which wasn't working so great.

"Well, you don't seem all that stricken over it," she tried again to entice him to say more.  
"It's been a few years. I've moved on. But enough about me. Tell me more about Brienne Tarth."  
"There's not much to tell."  
"Maybe so, but since no one's given us the isle's Wesflix password, or, you know, a device to watch it on, your life's story is going to have to do for entertainment. I'm all out of Barristan Selmy movies to re-enact for you."  
"Well..I'm 26, I work as an illustrator, I-"  
"How does one become an illustrator?"  
"Art school?"  
"Yeah, but why did you pick that as your profession? Why not art teacher or..something else artsy?"  
"Attending High School once was bad enough already. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in one. The idea to have to stand in front of a room of teenagers and teach is nightmarish to me. No, I never even thought about teaching. In my job, I can work from home most of the time, I don't have to deal with office gossip or watercooler talk, and I get to be creative. It's a win-win-win situation."  
"Did you always want to be an illustrator?"  
"Kind of," Brienne shrugged, "I've drawn comics since I was a kid. So, landscape paintings were never my goal."  
"Comics, huh?"  
"Oh yeah. My heroine was a lady knight, and her loyal squire was the sidekick."  
"And who was the villain?"  
"There were several, but the big bad guy, I called him Redbeard. He may or may not have been inspired by a real life figure. Even though the beard was more like red peach fuzz."  
"Ooh, I take it he got his ass beat by the knight all the time."  
"Naturally," Brienne replied with an air of smugness. She'd often taken her revenge against the school's biggest bully Ronnet Connington on paper, by letting Lady Lionheart beat his comic version into the dust.  
"I like that."  
"It was kind of boring, to be honest. Very repetitive. But it allowed me to let out some steam and work through some day-to-day frustrations. Anyway, I realized that while the drawings were okay, a text artist I am not. So, I let others do the text and illustrate their words. Did you always want to be a pilot?"  
"Yup."  
"Have you never considered flying for an airline? I mean, having your own business is great, but you could see the whole world, and it would be a more secure job as well, I'd guess. You're always depending on tourists coming by. And during the off season there aren't that many of us."  
"I'm happy with what I do. I don't need much."  
"What about your family? Did they support you moving to the Summer Isles?"  
"There's just me."  
"Oh. I'm sorry."  
"It's alright. It's been just me for a long time. I mean, I have a brother, but he still lives in Westeros, and he's busy so we don't see each other often. We mainly communicate via the occasional phone call."  
"Maybe your brother will look for you?"  
"Maybe," Jaime considered, "He does have an uncanny talent for knowing things. And drinking without getting hangovers."  
"Well, we can hope."  
"Yeah, we can always hope," Jaime said, before another grin stole itself onto his features, "Hope that, if he does find us, he has some Reach's finest chocolate chip mint ice cream with him. Or a large pizza."  
"Stop it!"

He didn't.


	7. Chapter 7

Brienne was in a bit of a situation. After more than five weeks on this island now, she was starting to notice things or, to be more precise, allowing herself to acknowledge having noticed them. Things about Jaime, to be exact.

For one, and she'd been aware of it from the start, someone would have to be absolutely blind to not see that he was incredibly handsome. Even with the beard and his hair only combed by his fingers. Brienne was perfectly willing to admit to herself that Jaime was some serious eye candy. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had a long history of being attracted to pretty guys that wouldn't look twice at her. And every time that had happened, things subsequently got weird between her and them. She could not allow herself to develop a crush on her island-mate. She would get awkward and then he would get awkward and it would make living together so much harder.

Speaking of hard, it was really hard not to notice how nicely Jaime's biceps curled when he was working on something, or how his hair looked positively golden when the sun hit it just right. Those were not good thoughts to have. She was supposed to be thinking of how to get off this island, of the people looking for her, of her poor dad or how to improve their daily lives while they were stuck here, not emerald green eyes and rippling back muscles.

Was this just happening because they were here, some sort of cabin-slash-island fever? Was it because Jaime was the only person around here? Was it some sort of desperation setting in? Plain old hormones acting up? Had she finally gotten too much sun and now her brain was out of whack?

In any case, Jaime wasn't making things easier for her. To be honest, Brienne would've currently preferred if he went back to being snippy and snide once in a while. Not that she was looking for verbal spats, but him being nice and funny and sometimes downright adorable, like when he scrunched up his face in disgust upon biting into some unripe fruit, didn't help a bit when one was trying to nip certain feelings in the bud. He wasn't even trying to be cute, and that somehow made him extra-cute.

This wasn't a time for anything romantic. Just because they had a pretty decent life here for the moment, considering they basically didn't have much and were still more or less helpless against nature should it decide to no longer play nice, it didn't mean this was a tropic vacation with opportunities for flings or whatever it was that single, attractive, people did when they went on holidays. And this thing here was still only temporary, like a holiday. Soon, they'd be rescued. Plus, of course, even if she were to look past all the objective reasons why crushing on him was a bad idea, there was still that slight detail that Jaime wasn't interested in anything between them. Probably. Likely. Sure, Brienne may have been the only woman on this island, but so far he hadn't given her the slightest hint that he may have been afflicted by the same nonsense feelings as she was. Not that she could blame him. She still got the occasional sunburn, didn't even want to know what her hair looked like and was generally glad that there were no mirrors present.

Brienne looked down at herself, sitting in the white sand, on lookout for any ships or boats. The scar on her calf that she'd gotten from the plane's broken windshield had healed nicely and was thankfully going to end up only a thin white line, just like the one on Jaime's head. But while the hair on them was blonde, her legs were in dire need of a shave. And while her own biceps curled nicely as well, the armpits next to them were getting kind of bushy. She washed her clothes in the sea as well as she could every second day, but the t-shirt she was wearing had become rather ratty, just like the jeans she'd cut off at the knees. Being in the sun all the time had also given her freckles free reign over her skin and her arms alone looked like a bad pointilistic painting. In short, she was not looking her best, and even her best wasn't great to begin with. No wonder he wasn't interested. Not that it mattered because nothing was going to happen.

So, how to go about nipping that attraction in the bud before it became even worse and she started to dream about him and maybe talked in her sleep or something equally horrible? Making herself rare around him wasn't going to work on account of them living together. But, then again, maybe that was a good first step. At least some distance where it was possible. Seeing as they had spent five weeks in this place now without getting rescued, a second lean-to or hut, just for herself, might be a good idea. Working on it would surely help in beating these pesky thoughts out of her head. She could even build it close to the other hut, that way it wasn't too drastic a measure and Jaime wouldn't be suspicious. Might be a nice thing for him as well, some more privacy.

  
"What'cha pondering?" The topic of Brienne's thoughts made himself known. Jaime walked up from behind her and sat down in the sand next to Brienne with a satisfied groan.  
"Huh?" She hadn't even heard him approach. _Damn._  
"You looked so deep in thought just now. Wanna share with the class?"

Definitely not.

"Uh..No. No pondering of any kind going on."  
"I know your face when you're thinking hard. Actually, I know your face in pretty much every situation by now."

Probably one of the main reasons why he wasn't interested in her. Not that it mattered because nothing was going to happen.

"Go look at the sea, it's nicer to look at."  
"Psshh, all the sea can do is roll back and forth. The sea is boring. You are not."  
"That's only because I'm the only one here," she waved him off.  
"Nah, don't sell yourself short. As far as people to get stranded with go, you're top notch. Wouldn't want anyone else here."  
"Weren't you going to check your snares?" Brienne tried to switch topics.  
"I did. Tonight it's berries and roots with a side of coconut only, sorry."  
"Can't have a feast every day," she shrugged, "We'd run out of animals quickly."  
"Too true. Anyway, I found something by the shore on the way back. Reminded me of you."  
"What's that?"

Jaime dug into his pants pocket, pulling out a conch shell, holding it out for her to take.

"Look. It's almost as blue as your eyes. But just almost. I've never seen that particular shade of blue anywhere but on you."

_Double damn_. Why did he have to go and do something so..sweet? That wasn't helpful at all.

"It's really nice" Brienne commented, looking at the shell from all sides before trying to give it back.  
"Keep it. I can see that blue any time I want to," Jaime replied with a wink and an exaggerated long look into her eyes.

_Triple damn_. That second hut building workout-slash-moving on plan was going to be put in motion tomorrow morning.

  
***

  
Building a second hut hadn't gone all that well. First of all, Jaime had gotten immediately suspicious as to why she needed her own living space all of a sudden. She couldn't even use some mumbled explanation about 'womanly reasons', seeing as, with five weeks spent on the island, he'd already been around her during that particular funtime and sacrificed half of his plaid shirt for her convenience. He called the endeavour stupid and a waste of resources, seeing as they had a perfectly fine hut already. But Brienne was nothing if not stubborn, so she promised she'd drag branches and rocks from the other side of the island to their spot, resources they weren't using anyway. Then, Jaime had gotten defensive, asking if he'd done something that made her want to get away from him and if they couldn't work it out. Of course, she couldn't let him believe that, even though it would've made a pretty good reason for the building of another shelter. Finally, when he'd seen that Brienne wasn't going to be swayed off her plan, he'd offered to help. While wearing the expression of a puppy that recently got kicked.

Long story short, they still shared the same hut.

And Jaime, probably still thinking he'd done something wrong, was being nicer than ever in an attempt to make up for whatever it was. First, he'd brought her a flower. Then he started making sure that her bed of leaves was regularly supplied with fresh ones. He made up stories to share in the evenings in front of the fire. One time he even tried to sing, but they quickly agreed that he was better off sticking to storytelling. Brienne assured him more than once that everything was fine, that the idea with the second hut had just been that and that he needn't do anything for her because they were cool. So far that had fallen on deaf ears. She could've sworn he had fun coming up with things, too. If nothing else, it kept him busy. Which would've been fine, had he been not so adorable in his attempts to 'gain the lady's favor', as he called it.

***  
A few days later, Jaime was off checking and re-setting his snares which were scattered through about half a mile of dense foliage. With nothing else to do for the moment, Brienne decided she would use the time to rinse her shirt in the sea and let it air out and dry while watching the horizon for passing by ships, boats or planes. She walked down to the beach, ready to take off the t-shirt when something blue caught her eye. To the left, by the treeline, a ball of fabric lay in the sand. Upon closer inspection, Brienne realized the ball were Jaime's cut-off jeans and boxers.

Brienne looked around. If Jaime's pants were lying here, then..

As if on cue, he rose from the water, shaking his head and flinging his hair like a wet dog. From this distance, Brienne couldn't see single droplets sliding down his well-defined chest, but she _knew_ they were there and she swallowed. Hard. Shirtless Jaime was a daily occurrence here, but so far they had actually managed to not see each other naked. Somehow seeing him like this, feeling completely unobserved, knowing that beneath the water he also was only wearing his skin was quite different. Wiping the left over water from his face, he began to wade back to the beach. He obviously hadn't seen her yet. Oh man. He truly was gorgeous. Just as the water was about to sink below the amount of skin Brienne was used to see on a daily basis, however, she turned around and bolted. Laundry could wait. There was no way she was going to be able to play it cool once she saw Jaime in all his glory. It was going to be hard enough already.

She ran all the way back to their camp, just so that she could veritably say she'd been here the whole time when he came back, leaning against a tree with a fast beating heart that didn't only come from the run. Dear Gods! The CoolBreeze guy from the cologne commercial a few years back that everyone had talked about had nothing on the man she was sharing an island with. Brienne began to have the sneaking suspicion that there was going to be no nipping in the bud when it came to the massive crush she was developing. Nope. This was going to run the whole 9 yards and be awkward, potentially embarrassing and ultimately one-sided.

Thankfully, by the time had Jaime had come back to their hut, Brienne's pulse had calmed down and the blush receded and so she was able to act nonchalant, as if she'd never seen what she'd seen. Moving forward, all she had to do was to make sure nothing awkward was to happen and so far, so she felt in the days after, she was doing a very fine job. She made sure to not sit too far away from Jaime when they were eating or having bonfire time so that he couldn't wonder what may be wrong with her, she made sure to never get caught staring at his fine physique and she definitely made sure to always announce her arrival when she had spent time alone. It was quite exhausting, to be honest.

***

"I need you to do me a huge favor," Jaime declared upon coming back to the hut a few days later, plopping down unceremoniously right in front of Brienne who had been busy whittling a new stick for fishing. The old one hadn't brought her any luck, so she'd retired it, thinking that maybe with a new one there'd be success. Finally.  
"What's that?" She replied, not looking up.  
"Damn mosquito finally got me in a place I can't reach and it's making me crazy. Scratch my back for me?"  
"Uh.." Putting her hands on him? "You're not supposed to scratch, only makes it worse," she tried to weasel out of it.  
"I know that, but it's horrible and I can't bear it any longer. Just for a few moments, please? Pretty please? Please you very much?"

Not waiting for her reply, probably thinking he'd begged enough, Jaime shuffled around until he was sitting with his back to her.

"Well...okay?" Brienne finally said putting her work away, simply because any other answer would've been weird when he was already sitting there, clearly expecting her to get started. It wasn't that she didn't want to help him, but physical contact of any kind surely wouldn't be helping her.

She gently scratched her, thanks to the nail file on Jaime's multipurpose valyrian pocket knife still not completly broken, nails over the red welt on his otherwise flawless back. In spite of having spent the same amount of time outside, her skin still was somewhat paler compared to his and it made for a nice visual contrast.

"Is that alright?" She asked, trying her hardest to make her voice sound perfectly normal as Jaime leaned into her touch. Damn, his skin really was much too soft for someone living on a deserted island.

"Mh-hm. Do it harder."

She was quite proud that her hand only stilled for a split second after that sentence. Accomodating him, Brienne pressed down her fingers a little harder.

"Gods, that is good. Don't stop."

Putting her free hand onto Jaime's shoulder to push against him a little since he was kept leaning into her, Brienne kept on scratching. At least until he groaned. Then she snatched her hand back as if he'd burned her. That had not sounded like a painful groan and the 'awkward' alarm in her head went off.

"Salt water!" She exclaimed.  
"Huh?" Jaime murmured, sounding almost dazed.  
"Salt water will help," Brienne said quickly, "You should go for a swim in the ocean. I really need to finish this.."

She shuffled away and picked up her stick and the knife again, getting back to work, decidedly not looking anywhere but at her hands.

"Oh," Jaime replied and there was a long moment of pause after it, "It's okay. Feels better already. Thanks."  
"Sure," Brienne nodded fervently, focusing on her stick, praying to every deity she knew that Jaime wouldn't see the blush she was feeling grow on her cheeks.  
"I owe you. You ever have an itch that needs scratching, I'm your guy."

She really didn't want to think what her apparently gone-crazy mind immediately led her to, but what flashed in front of Brienne's inner eye certainly had nothing to do with mosquito itches. Good Gods, what was wrong with her? And she'd been doing so well too, trying to not get into any situation that had potential for blushing and/or awkwardness. She decided to blame it on the touching. That definitely needed to be avoided in the future.

"Thanks, but they only really get my arms and legs. I can reach those myself."  
"Okay, Sunshine. If you say so. But the offer stands."  
"Why do you call me that anyway? Sunshine?" Brienne immediately switched topics to something safer, something to get her treacherous mind back on track with. Meanwhile she'd gotten accustomed to being called by that name and it didn't really bother her anymore, but she'd wanted to know for a while now how he'd ended up with that nickname for her.   
"Well..I hardly ever get to fly for the fun of it during off season, fuel prices being what they are, so when there are no customers I unfortunately have to stay on the ground. When you came in wanting a tour it brightened up what was, until then, a very dull week. And then..I guess the name just stuck. You're still the bright spot in my day. It's a lucky name."  
"Lucky?" Brienne asked sceptically, looking around them for emphasis.  
"Hey, I could be dead, but I'm not because you saved me. Things could be a lot worse than they are. I'd say you're a huge good luck charm. And before you start having another alternate conversation in your head, I meant 'huge' as in 'a lot of' luck."  
"I wasn't..I got your meaning."  
"Just making sure. In any case, it's definitely an endearment."

They sat there for a while, Brienne whittling away on her piece of wood, but eventually Jaime broke the silence as he was prone to do because he apparently could not stand prolonged quietness.

"What's wrong with the other stick anyway?"  
"Bad karma."  
"You believe in that?"  
"I'm willing to believe in a lot of things if they help me finally catch a fish," Brienne said and lifted the tip of the stick closer to her face to inspect it. Deciding that it was to her satisfaction, she put the valyrian army knife away and wiped her hands off on her jeans.  
"Well, why don't I go with you?" Jaime declared, getting to his feet lithely. Brienne looked up at him.  
"You broke your stick last time you went, remember? You cursed at it for a few minutes and then snapped it in half."  
"I'll take the bad karma stick, then." Jaime shrugged. "Can't make my luck with fishing any worse. And if nothing else, I can soak my mosquito bite. Come on," he said, holding out his hand for Brienne to take it. She didn't. No touching and all that.  
"I can get up all by myself, thank you."  
"I know you can. Doesn't mean you have to."

Really, the only reason Brienne took his hand in the end and let him help her up was because it would've been awkward to not take it, now that he'd already outstretched it and hadn't pulled it back after she initially declined the offer. She did, in any case, let go as soon as she was standing, turning sideways to bend down for her stick.

"Wait!" Jaime exclaimed and grabbed her by the arm, turning her around again.  
"What?" Brienne asked confused.  
"You have a lash on your cheek."  
"So?"  
"Blow and make a wish. Can't hurt, right? If you're willing to believe in a lot of things.."  
"I guess you got a point. Where is it?" She asked, raising her hand.  
"Don't, you'll just wipe it away. I'll get it."

_Oh._  
Jaime stepped closer in order to get that lash and Brienne willed herself not to fidget. His index finger touched her left cheek while his eyes narrowed in concentration. Brienne held her breath, feeling every spot he touched warming up even more.

"Don't move now...Aha! Gotcha!"

Pulling back his finger with a triumphant look, Jaime presented it to her.

"Now make your wish."

Leaning down and gently blowing, Brienne closed her eyes and fervently wished for good luck of any kind. When she opened them again, lifting her head, her gaze fell directly onto Jaime who was watching her with a weird look. 

"Everything okay?" Brienne asked after a long moment of heavy silence. It seemed to shake him out of whatever stupor he'd been in. He blinked twice and swallowed.

"Uh..yeah. Yeah. You know..I..I just remembered that I forgot to check one of my snares. On the eastern side. I'll better go do that. Sunlight and all."

Okay? What was that reaction? Had she made Jaime uncomfortable? Had she involuntarily given something away? The blush maybe? Brienne touched her hot cheek, once more cursing that reaction of her face to anything that threw her out of balance.

"Right," she said, "Well, I'll go try my new stick regardless."  
"You do that, I'll catch you later. Good luck."

And before she could do or say anything else, it was Jaime who quickly turned away to go and grab his satchel before disappearing between the trees.  
Brienne stood in the same spot for a moment longer. Well, this had gotten awkward rather quick after all, in spite of her good intentions.

  
She really needed to get off this island.


	8. Chapter 8

It had probably been too good to be true. Ever since they'd landed on the island, things had been relatively easy, considering the circumstances. They'd been lucky with the weather for the most part, a few short rain showers, cool nights and small thunderstorms not counted. Of course, it was only a matter of time until nature decided to throw them a curveball. Or another big storm, as it were. As with the one that had gotten them here in the first place, this one came practically out of nowhere. One moment the sun was beating down and then, the wind was picking up. Brienne had been spear fishing, almost finally catching one when the first lightning struck just as she aimed for it, making her miss. Looking up to the grey sky, she knew this wasn't going to be only a quick rain shower and it would only be minutes before the clouds unleashed gallons of rain. By the time she'd made it out of the water, it began. _Dammit!_ She felt woefully unprepared. There was so much that needed to be done. Secure the camp or make sure the stacks of wood for the fires scattered along the beach wouldn't get too soaked. Gather some provisions in case the weather was too bad to leave the hut before nightfall. Why hadn't they prepared for this situation before? Oh right. Because the almost daily sunshine and the peacefulness of the isle had given her a sense of false security. Because she'd been busy crushing on her companion in spite of being resolved not to. Brienne could've kicked herself for that stupidity. Well, there was nothing for it. She needed to act, and fast.

"Brienne!"

Jaime had come running to the beach. Good. He could help her. The rain was already pelting down on them and the temperature was dropping fast.

"We have to get the wood!" Brienne shouted over the rumbling of thunder. Jaime shook his head.  
"We need to get to our shelter, so that the wind doesn't blow us off the island! This is a big one."

Which was exactly what she thought as well, but there would be an after the storm and for that, they needed to be prepared. It had taken days to get all the stacks together and a lot of coconut husks as tinder, she was not about to let the work go to waste without trying to save it.

"We need that wood!"

Jaime grabbed her by the arm.

"Brienne! Don't be stupid, this storm is going to be even wo--"  
Brienne shook off his grip, wanting to get going. Maybe she wouldn't be able to carry all of it from the beach to the trees where it had at least a chance of not getting completely soaked, but definitely some of it.

"We have to save it! What if a ship comes by afterwards and we have nothing to signal with because the wood is soaked?"  
"It's no use!"

Jaime grabbed her arm again and when she still wouldn't budge and tried to shake him off again, he simply flung her over his shoulder and carried her away from the beach and back to their shelter. Their best bet of sitting out the storm, protected by the trees surrounding it and their canopy above them. She squirmed away, calling out to him to let her down, but he wouldn't hear any of it, just sped up his steps, keeping her in position with a strong grip. Finally getting inside the hut, Jaime unceremoniously dumped her on the heap of leaves she had as mattress. Brienne immediately got up again.

"I can make it back, I know it. We're wasting time!"  
"It's not worth the risk. We'll get new stacks once the storm is over and the wood has dried up," Jaime said with a shake of his head, blocking the entrance.  
"But what about the meantime? I ca--"  
"Stop being stubborn! We'll be lucky if the hut holds this time. Out there you could die if a tree falls onto you! I won't allow it!"  
"What if a plane co--"  
"No one is coming, okay?!" Jaime exploded. Thunder roared around them and served as break. Brienne stopped in her tracks and for a few moments they could hear nothing but the sound of rain and their harsh breathing.  
"You can't know that," she finally replied, shaking her head.  
"I do know," Jaime replied quietly and there was a note of assuredness in his voice that told Brienne there was more to this than the occasional doubt that she also had during their time here.  
"What are you talking about? Why? How do you know?"

Another bout of thunder crashed outside and Jaime looked defeated. He closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed.

"..because about thirty minutes after I bought my plane I removed the blackbox and took it to bury it some place. So that I couldn't be found."  
"What?!"

There was a long pause. Jaime was looking to the ground and Brienne was burning a hole into him with her gaze, willing him to say something. Anything.  
"There was no blackbox on board." he finally confirmed, looking up and at her, his gaze apologetic.

Brienne felt her blood rushing in her ears. She felt dizzy for a moment. No flight recorder? No rescue? How could that be? Why?

"No.." she muttered, shaking her head, "That's not true. You just don't want me to go--"  
"It's true. I'm sorry."  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
"I wanted to, I really wan--" he tried to explain.  
"You said there were no more lies!"  
"It's not a lie, it's..an omission. Brienne, I nev--" He began, putting a calming hand on her arm as she began to back away, which Brienne promptly shook off.  
"Don't touch me!" She hissed, turning to the door.  
"Brienne, come on. The storm--"

The storm could kiss her butt right now. Let it blow her away. All Brienne could think was that she was going to be stuck here until the day she died because Jaime had sabotaged any chance of a rescue before they'd ever met. He, for some reason she didn't give a damn about, didn't want to be found and now she too was never going to be found again.

"No. Stay the hell away from me!"  
"Brienne!"  
"I mean it! Do not follow me."

And before he could do something stupid and potentially life-threatening like touching her again, Brienne took off. Right into the storm.  
The wind whipped around her and she was soaked again within seconds. But she soldiered on. All she wanted was to get as far away from that lying, sabotaging stranger she'd been living with as possible. Brienne knew there was a rock formation on the other side of the island with an small overhang that would give her some rudimentary shelter. They hadn't moved their things there because they had a pretty good shelter built already and they figured since they'd washed up on the other shore it was the one to stick to. But she'd take impractical over having to be around..him..for now. Looked like she was going to be building that second hut after all. Because she had just effectively moved out.

No wonder he hadn't wanted to save the wood. He'd known it was pointless all along. Probably had a good time too seeing her keep on hoping in vain all these weeks. Maybe amusing himself over when or if ever she'd figure it out. Pretending to be her friend, be a team, when he'd known the bleak truth.  
The abrupt loss of all hope of a rescue was a gaping hole in Brienne's chest. When she finally made it to the rock formation, she huddled against the biggest boulder and just sobbed. She was angry, she was hurt and she was utterly alone. And would be for the rest of her days. Stuck here on this island.

  
***

By the time the storm was finally over, it had gotten dark already. It was chilly and she was shivering, but Brienne didn't move from her position. She was defeated. All this time she'd held on to the hope that, someone would get their flight recorder signal and she would definitely be rescued, and now that lifeline was gone. There was nothing.

Thankfully, Jaime hadn't come after her, because by the Gods she didn't know how she would've reacted to seeing him right now. This whole time they'd been here he'd lied to her. She'd developed feelings for him and all the while she'd had no idea who that man actually was. No one got rid of their flight recorder, a potentially life-saving device, without good reason. It was illegal to remove it. Was he a wanted man? A criminal? Did it even matter? No matter his reason, he'd gone and done it and now she was forced to live with the consequences. Her and her poor dad both. 

After being outside all night long in her wet clothes, Brienne felt like she'd been put through the mangle. She hadn't really slept, just dozed off somewhen before dawn. Her thoughts wouldn't let her find rest. Still, when the sun was up, she rose. What else could she do? It was a chilly morning and the skies were still cloudy which suited her mood just fine. There was a lot of work to do. Find things to build her new hut with. She'd save her despair for the evening.

She'd been at it for a few hours, making heaps of wet branches and vines to weave together later with the occasional trip to the brook that also thankfully ran by not too far from here when Jaime found her. Figured he wouldn't respect her wishes. Brienne threw him the most malevolent glare she could come up with and didn't stop in her labors.

"Can we talk?" He asked carefully, stopping a few feet away from her.  
"I have nothing to say to you."  
"Can you listen, then? I'll tell you everything about me, answer any questions you may have. Nothing but the truth, I swear it. Just..please?"

At least he had the decency to sound actually contrite. Very well. Apprently he was going to be her 'neighbor' for the rest of her life anyway. Might as well find out who that person truly was after all if she was forced to spend her life around him. Find out why he'd thrown away their chance of being saved. Dropping the branch she had been dragging, Brienne sat down in the sand, folding her arms in front of her chest.

"Talk. I'll decide how long I'll listen" she said coolly.

Jaime sat down across from her, a good safety distance between them. He looked like crap, too. Good.

"Thank you. You can't possibly know how sorry I am. I never meant for this to happen."  
"Save it. Just get to the point."  
"Uh..okay..where do I begin? Well, I already told you once I'm from Westeros originally. I was born and raised in Casterly Rock, and my name isn't Hill. It's Lannister."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to theworldunseen for guessing correctly in ch 6 that Jaime did something with the plane.


	9. Chapter 9

Brienne had heard the name Lannister before. It was hard not to when the corporation named after the family was one of the bigger global players. LanniCorp dealt in pretty much everything, from cosmetics over cars to high tech. Her blender back home was a LanniCorp product. Jaime was related to them?

"Yeah, those Lannisters. I'm Tywin Lannister's oldest son," he continued upon seeing the wondering look on Brienne's face. Which was good because she still wasn't ready to actually talk to him. So, Jaime was rich. Wasn't a good enough reason to want to disappear from the face of the earth. Must've been really dreadful getting everything he'd ever wanted before he could wish it. She silently rose her eyebrows and let him continue.

"So, as you can guess, I had a very privileged upbringing. Whatever me and my brother wanted to try out, sports, playing an instrument, collecting old toys, our parents had the means to let us pursue it and they did, as long as we showed true commitment. And ever since I was..I don't know...six maybe? Five? I had the dream of flying. Launchpad McQuack was actually my childhood hero. I thought there was nothing better than soaring across the skies, see the world from above, be free. You see, while we were indulged a lot, my father was also very strict. I wouldn't go on record and say that it was his intention, well at least I still hope it wasn't with his children, but the man can be downright frightful. My mom was the warm one, I don't think my father ever gave me a hug in all my life. Anyway, I wanted to fly and I was persistent, making the same wish every nameday or winterfest, until mom had father convinced to let me try it. I was nine, couldn't even reach all the switches without a booster seat, and had to stay on the ground for at least two more years, getting only theory lessons and simulations, but I was over the moon. And as it turned out, I was one of the lucky few that not only have a dream, but are also talented at what their passion lies at. I spent every moment I could with something related to my lessons or planes. Even more so when my mom died."

_Oh_. Another sad thing they had in common besides being stranded. Brienne knew exactly how it felt to lose your mom at a young age and she felt a tiny wave of sympathy for the man sitting across from her. Not enough to be best friends with him again, though. Not saying anything, she waited for him to carry on.

"My father, he kept on going as if nothing had happened and I guess that included letting things for us continue as they were, so contrary to what I feared, he did not stop my lessons and as I got older, my desire to fly only grew. It's the one thing I was ever any good at. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life: be a professional pilot. Fly the big ones, the passenger machines, see the whole world. By the time I was twenty-one, I had all my licenses and qualifications. When I told my father, he flat out said that it was not going to happen. I was supposed to finish college, get my business degree and start in the family company, work my way up to eventually become his successor. I had and still have no interest in that and, to be honest, the way he told me, like there wasn't even going to be any discussion about it, like he owned me and I just had to do what he said simply because he said it, it rubbed me the wrong way. So I applied to pretty much every airline behind his back. Most of them, they politely declined. A few showed interest to train me, but bowed out once they found out who my father was. I can't blame them. You see, he's not someone you want to piss off and he's certainly not above a hostile takeover to prove a point. But there was one airline that wasn't intimidated by the prospect of pissing off Tywin Lannister and they offered me a job. The biggest airline of them all, DragonAir. The day I signed the paperwork, I remember walking back to the car and feeling like I was floating on air. My dream was going to come true."

There still was a hint of pride when he said it.

"My girlfriend at the time, she wasn't happy about it, but I figured: Other men are away for work a day or two at a time as well, right? Soldiers on deployment are sometimes even away for months or years. I would be home often enough. I was sure it wouldn't be a that big of a problem and eventually she said she was going to support me. So I began pilot training, and eventually, co-piloting for the CEO himself, Aerys Targaryen. I learned a lot from him, I was doing what I loved to do..it was the best time of my life."

The wistful smile on Jaime's face told Brienne that the 'but' was soon to come and that it was going to be a big one. Something must've happened to throw him off the almost picture perfect career path he'd been on. He began drawing doodles in the sand as he continued, watching his hand rather than looking at her.

"Until I began to notice changes in Aerys. Or maybe he'd always been like this and just gotten sloppy, I don't know. He would drink on the job and start ranting. No one said anything; he was the boss and was still flying well. Then the talk of fire and burning began. He started wondering how big a fireball a full tank of kerosene would create and about having to 'cleanse' himself for some reason. I tried to tell the board, I did, but they dismissed me, wouldn't hear of it, so I figured I'd just keep both eyes on him and things would turn out okay. They didn't. Of course they didn't. He tried to blow up a full plane, 238 passengers, crew, me and himself with wildfire. He'd hidden it in the cargo bay. I was checking on him, still keeping my eyes on him you know, and found him in front of the cargo hatch just as he was ready to blow it all up. I wrestled with him for his lighter and punched him and he fell. Landed on the tarmac and cracked his skull. He was comatose for a few days before he died from subarachnoid hemorrhage. And I was the bad guy, the guilty one. The murderer."

"But it was an accident! They couldn't possibly try you for an accident," it burst out of Brienne. Jaime shook his head, finally taking his gaze off his hand and looking her in the eyes again.

"Not criminally, no. It was ruled an accident. And it was, I swear it. Gods know, I didn't want to kill him. He needed help. But for the company, it was a different matter. I went against the pecking order, I endangered their future by causing the loss of their CEO...they put me in front of the board, had an internal investigation, declared me unfit due to my still young age and 'apparent anger and authority issues' and recommended to the pilot's association that they take my license without the option of re-applying, which they did to make an example out of me. I'm guessing that some money was exchanged between the board and the association too, but whether that happened or not doesn't make a difference as far as the result goes. I am no longer allowed to fly in Westeros and it would probably take a miracle to reverse that ruling. Even if, no airline would hire me. And just like that, the dream was over."

He wasn't allowed to fly? Brienne began to understand how he'd ended up removing the tracking device from his plane. The plane he wasn't supposed to be flying. Although, this was Essos, not Westeros. She had no idea if he was banned from flying here as well. And how did the name of Hill figure into the story?

"I went back to Casterly, and I was..well, I was depressed. For about a year I did nothing at all, hardly leaving the mansion, grieving and just being..lost. I didn't know what to do now with myself, what the next step was. My confidence was completely shattered, there was of course guilt over causing a man's death, and anger because I got punished for doing the right thing in trying to stop him. Father did what he could to keep things under wraps and not have the whole story be public knowledge, and the airline helped him in order to keep their reputation, but with me he was so cold it made it seem like the North was a tropical resort. The only things he said to me were basically what an idiot I was and that I was going to start working for him now because he was the only one who would give me a job anyway seeing as I was not qualified for anything, idiot that I am."

Jaime looked down at his hands again.

"My relationship went downhill around that time as well. She couldn't, or wouldn't, understand that I just couldn't snap out of it, put it behind me and move on. That I couldn't live on happily just making her alone the focus of my life. For a while, she tried. She really did, it's not like she just up and left first chance she got. But eventually, her patience with me ran out. There were some nasty fights. Her fighting with me mostly, because I would just sit there and take it. My father constantly called me an idiot, she began calling me a loser and a wimp and I felt like shit. Eventually, she began to turn to others for company and met someone. Several someones, as the story goes, but she left me for only one. Haven't seen her since. Have no desire to, either. That's over and done. Has been for a long time.

"But back then, I had nothing. Not my dream, not the woman I loved, not even a close friend I could talk to other than my younger brother and he had just left for college the year before...I just knew I had to get out of there or sooner or later I was either going to go mad like Aerys, become a drinker like many a Lannister before me or kill myself. So I went to talk to my father one last time. Told him I wasn't going to work for him, that it just wasn't for me, that I had to find something for myself, something that was mine. He reacted as expected. He kicked me out. Disowned me. Probably thought I'd come running back with my tail between my legs once I saw that there weren't many options for me out there that didn't include his help or interference. I wasn't going to let that happen, so I packed a bag, I cleaned out my account, took the money my mom had left me and I disappeared.

"There were a couple of detours, it took me about a year, but eventually I landed on the Summer Isles. It's actually scarily easy to obtain a fake license and documents if you're willing to pay enough. I bought the property and the plane under the name Hill and that was it as far as my money went and I had to do something to earn a living. It's been six years now. Most months I just about make enough for maintenance, running costs and three meals a day, but I am doing what I love. I don't want or need my father back in my life. He gave up on me, I gave up on him. I took the flight recorder out so that no one could trace me, should he change his mind or sic the authorites on me in order to force me to return under his influence. It was never supposed to get to a point where I actually needed the blasted thing, I've been flying for more than twenty years, been taking people up and down the islands for more than five without any complications. I never thought something like this would happen. Anyway, that's the gist of it."

He ran a hand through his hair, took a deep breath as if to steel himself for her judgement and finally looked at Brienne again. She took her time thinking about everything he'd just told her, collecting her thoughts.

"Why didn't you tell me who you really are?" She finally asked the first question.  
"I've been Jaime Hill for more than six years now. It's not something I made up just to play you for stupid. It's who I am to the whole world and it's become automatic to say Hill, not Lannister."  
"Did you get a good laugh about my stupid hope of being saved?"

Jaime's eyes became wide in surprise.

"No! Gods, no! It's not stupid! And I wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell you from the first day on, but--"  
"It just didn't come up in casual conversation?" Brienne deadpanned.  
"Sort of. First, I was really sure someone would pass by within a day or two, we'd be off the island, and I wouldn't have to tell you. Then, you were so down and I knew I couldn't tell you because telling you would've broken your spirits. You pinned all your hopes on that blackbox and I couldn't take that from you. Finally, after the first month, I figured it wouldn't make a difference because by then the flight recorder wouldn't have given a signal anymore anyway, so you didn't need to know and as for my name, it was too late for that, I felt. It's selfish, I know, but I couldn't stand the thought of you hating me. I still can't."

The recorder would've stopped signalling after only a month? Brienne was perplexed. She'd always believed these things had longer battery life. Still..it wasn't right, what he'd done. Because of it, no one had begun a search for them when they'd crashed. That would've been fine if it had been only about him. Well, obviously not fine, but his decision and problem. However, working as a pilot, giving people tours, he was dragging someone else into his deception every time he started his plane with a customer on board. And it was not okay.

"Hating you is not going to change or help anything."  
"So...you don't hate me?"  
"Don't get your hopes up. I'm furious. I'm pissed, I'm hurt and I'm definitely not ready to forgive you."  
"So that means you're not coming back?"  
"No, I'm not. At least not for now. I need some time to think about how our cohabitation here is going to continue. This whole time I thought we were getting to know each other, that we were in this together, but it turns out I don't know you at all and I'm all alone."  
"That is not true. You're not alone. I told you the truth about everything just now, I swear I will never lie to you again, and, as a person, I'm the same I was yesterday, it's just the last name that's different."  
"After weeks of pretending! You let me foolishly hope all the time and now it's been taken away with a snap of your fingers. I can't just nod my head and move on."  
"There is still hope, Brienne. There is always hope."  
"No there isn't. You said it yourself yesterday: No one is coming."  
"Not because of that flight recorder, no, but they still might. Someday. Somehow. I'm so very sorry for all of it."  
"I believe you are. Just don't see how it changes anything."  
"Brienne--"  
"I need to get back to work now," she interrupted, because it was as she'd just said. Whatever he was planning on saying, it was not going to change anything.  
"I can help," Jaime offered.  
"Thank you, but I really want to be alone right now. I need to think."

Jaime stood up dejectedly, wiping the sand off the back of his pants.

"Okay. If you need anything from the hut, just come and grab it whenever you want. Whatever you need, it's yours."

He reached into his pocket.

"Here, take the lighter. I'll just make sure my campfire stays lit."

Taking the lighter from his outstretched hand, Brienne got up as well. Jaime's finger stroked over hers when their hands touched.

"Brienne? Please stay safe, okay?"

She wordlessly put the lighter in her pocket. Jaime turned to go. He was almost by the treeline when she looked up.

"Jaime?"

He immediately turned around.

"Yeah?"  
"You too. Stay safe, I mean."

He nodded his head, gave her one long last look and disappeared between the trees. Brienne picked up her branch again and worked on.


	10. Chapter 10

Building her new home went slow as molasses. Even though the second time around Brienne even knew what she was doing and the rock formation took care of two of the four walls needed.

By the end of the first day, she just felt so very drained. Did it really make sense to build another shelter? Brienne knew very well she couldn't simply cut Jaime out forever and that this was just a momentary getaway. He was the only other living soul here with her. She would need to talk to him again eventually, they would have to pull on the same rope if they wanted to make it, because while she may never get off this island, ready to die she was definitely not. It was merely for now that she needed time to herself to comprehend everything and make up her mind about what she was thinking and she couldn't do that around him. It had been quite a double whammy.

Jaime Hill was not Jaime Hill at all, but Jaime Lannister. He had gone into hiding from everything, from his family, from his past. He'd pulled the cord on a life that was slipping away from him to reinvent himself at the other end of the world. It was bad, what had happened to him, having to live with the guilt of being involved in someone else's death together with having the rug completely pulled out from under him. Having no one in his life that was there for him, except for that ominous brother that only occasionally called him. But he could've told her.

Brienne could understand the reasoning of Jaime having been Jaime Hill long before he'd ever met her and therefore introducing himself as such and of course he hadn't had to disclose everything about his private life when she'd chartered that scenic flight with him. But, under the circumstances, with everything that had happened, one would think that letting slip that there was something to talk about wouldn't be too much. They'd spent every day together, there'd been ample opportunity to be straight with her, to open up. She'd told him her life's story weeks ago!

  
Meanwhile, after having gone back and forth about everything again and again, it wasn't even so much the fact that he'd gotten rid of the flight recorder anymore. Of course, it was absolutely wrong what he'd done. It was stupid and reckless. Arrogant to believe that he'd just never need that recorder because he was that good at flying. But, so Brienne had to admit to herself now that she allowed herself to consider other options, the flight recorder alone wouldn't have meant an automatic rescue. For one, surviving the crash alone had been somewhat of a miracle, one that Jaime had made happen. And if they'd died in it, the presence of a flight recorder wouldn't have helped them one bit. Also, without having sent out a mayday prior to the crash, no one knew they had crashed either, so anyone getting a signal off the blackbox would've been a coincidence. Especially, since the search probably didn't even begin until Brienne was supposed back in King's Landing, and who knew if , after a week, they had simply not bothered, assuming her dead or missing anyway. No one knew she'd gone on a scenic flight, after all, so looking for her probably was like looking for the needle in the haystack. There was no knowing if anyone had been close to the place where the plane had sunken. And by now it certainly didn't make a difference anymore if the signal had died after four weeks. But she'd pinned all her hopes on that thing, the fact that the battery ran out after a month hadn't even occurred to her. And not once had he tried to dissuade her, to caution her. Not once had he tried to at least allude to the fact that she shouldn't expect a guaranteed rescue. Now she was going to have to find something else to draw hope from, and right now, she didn't really know what that was.

What really rankled her the most was that Jaime had spent every day with her and lied. He'd lived with her and lied, eaten with her and lied and slept next to her and lied. Or _omitted_. Whatever. When he'd removed that blackbox years ago, it certainly hadn't anything to do with her. He could have, should have, come clean about it once they'd stranded here, so that Brienne knew the facts and odds, however, since it involved her as well. She'd managed to develop feelings for him while he lied, not even knowing who it was that she was developing those feelings for. And if she was honest with herself, and she usually tried to be, underneath the bewilderment and the anger, she still had feelings for him. She was already wondering occasionally what he was doing and how he was taking the situation.

By the end of the second day, Brienne who had never been the chatty sort, started to miss having conversations. Simply hear another voice but hers. Back in the world, it was so easy to find some background noise by switching on the tv or some music or simply opening a window and letting the city sounds in. She remembered the movie about some guy who'd washed up on a deserted island and eventually started talking to a volleyball. She didn't even have a damn volleyball to talk to! And she felt stupid thinking out loud just to hear something other than the waves and bird sounds, so she didn't.

The nights were the worst. Not that she was afraid of the dark, or being ambushed by some animal, after all, she did have a campfire of her own, but it was too quiet at night, even with nature's sounds surrounding her. Jaime had always had an entertaining story for campfire time, made up or not, and even when they didn't talk, after they'd gone to bed, it was comforting to hear someone breathe next to you. Even if that someone had turned out to be not at all who she'd thought he was.

But was that true after all? His actions, his nature, the way he spoke with her, his jokes, they were a part of him, no matter how he called himself, weren't they? He hadn't played a role for her all this time they'd been here, he just carried another name than the one under which she'd met him. And she'd never thought of him as 'Jaime Hill' anyway. Only 'Jaime'. So, as far as that went, there hadn't been all that much lying going on after all. Plus, he was suffering the same fate as she was due to his removal of the flight recorder. He wasn't one bit better off than her, hadn't done anything to her he hadn't also done to himself. The decision to take it out from years ago had come back to bite him in his own ass, too.

By the end of the third day, Brienne was ready to admit that it wasn't conversations she missed, but Jaime. His presence. His ability to make her laugh. Lying on the heap of leaves that was her bed in the new shelter she resolved that she was going to visit him tomorrow. Talk again about everything. Check in on him, to see that he was alright. They could work this out, somehow. They had to, after all. It had only been three days, but Brienne realized that there was no way she could do this alone, live here on her own. A startling realization for someone who had been used for the majority of her life to do the big things on her own. She decided to give it one more day. She needed to figure out first if she was ready to forgive because of necessity or because she truly had moved past her feelings of anger and hurt. She knew she was going to have to go back eventually regardless, but the whole vibe of their living together would change according to her reasons for coming back.

On the morning of the fourth day, Brienne knew that she wasn't going to make it back. Getting up alone took too much effort. She felt sick to her bones, sweaty, tired and weak. Sleeping in her wet clothes during the windy and cool aftermath of a storm had taken its toll on her this time, it seemed, and now she'd come down with a cold. A massive cold from hell. But she needed to get up, she needed to get water and food and..Jaime. When she dragged herself to her feet, the world around her swayed precariously and Brienne knew after a few yards away from her shelter that even the short trek from here to the brook would be more than she could manage today. Panic set in when she thought that she might actually die from this, from lack of water, all alone. Because she had sent Jaime away. Her breathing became shallow and quick and then the world tilted and faded to black.

  
***  
_She was wandering through a jungle, feeling utterly lost. No matter how far she walked, the jungle just wouldn't end, it was like a maze. The bushes scratched her skin and her naked feet felt raw. There was no sound but her laboured breathing, no birds chirping, no trickling of water, nothing. It was eerie. The silence around her seemed to close in on her, became suffocating. She was so thirsty and it was so damn hot. There was nothing Brienne wanted more than to sit down or lie down and just rest. But if she sat down now, she would never get up again, she knew it. So Brienne trudged on, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping to arrive somewhere. It was neverending._

_"Brienne!" a voice called from far away. It sounded panicked. Brienne knew that voice. But she couldn't make out which direction it had come from._

_"I'm here!" she called back, turning in a slow circle, waiting for a reply. But the sound that had come out of her dry throat had been swallowed up by the trees around her. When no reply came, she began walking again. After all, she had to._

_There was light pressure on her forehead and she felt a presence._

_"Gods, you're burning up!" the voice said, closer now.Well, that wasn't right. She was thirsty and sweaty, sure, but she was in no way burning up. If she had a fever, she would hardly be able to trek through a jungle, now would she?_

_"I'm fine." All she needed was to find the way out of here and she'd be alright._  
_"So stubborn."_  
_"Where are you?" she asked curiously. She still couldn't see anyone, only hear that familiar voice. Where was the person belonging with that voice?_  
_"It'll be okay. It'll be fine. I'll be right back!"_

_She heard fast steps, but couldn't see anyone._

_"No, don't go! I can't seem to find the way alone," she called out, looking around frantically. It was a few painfully long heartbeats until she heard the steps returning._

_"I'm here. Sunshine, I'm here. Shh," the voice said in a calming tone._  
_"Where?"_  
_"I'm right here. I'm not leaving you, I promise."_

_She felt something wet on her forehead, but when she looked up, it wasn't raining. Weird. When she looked down again, she was standing in a clearing. The air was better here, less suffocating._

_"Do you know the way out of the jungle?" She asked the bodiless voice hopefully._  
_"The what?"_  
_"This jungle."_  
_"Oh boy. Don't die on me. Please!"_  
_"I'm fine, I've just lost the way. Help me find the way."_  
_"Whatever you do, do not walk into any bright lights, understand?"_  
_"There are no bright lights, it's a jungle. That's part of the whole problem." She replied in a duh-voice._  
_"Just...promise me, alright? I can't lose you."_  
_"...okay."_

_An easy promise to make. She was quite fine, now that she wasn't alone anymore._

_"Good girl. Hold on tight now."_

_Brienne was about to remark that there wasn't much to hold on to in the clearing and that she saw no reason to anyway, when the earth rumbled and she found herself swaying. For a moment she felt like she was flying but she thought that such a thing was impossible. Eventually, the earth stopped moving and she felt the ground again under her feet. _

_"We'll find the way together, okay? I'll take care of you. Rest now. Just rest," the voice said and Brienne believed it._

_So she rested._

  
***  
When Brienne opened her eyes, she was in her shelter, lying on her mattress of leaves. She remembered being out in the open on the way to the brook, so this couldn't be. Unless she'd dreamed being outside? She felt horribly weak, drained and grimy. Sick. Her head was throbbing. Reaching up to touch her forehead, she came into contact with something. Brienne pulled it down to look at it. An almost dry shirtsleeve? Wait. She knew that plaid pattern. That was..

"Oh thank the Gods, you're awake!"

..Jaime's shirt. Or part of what was left of it anyway. Brienne looked up to see him standing in the entrance of her shelter, looking worried but also relieved. He held the water bottle in his hand.

"Jaime? What are you doing here?" She croaked.

He hurried over to where Brienne was lying and helped her sit up, before holding out the bottle to her. She greedily drank half of its contents, while he fussed over her, feeling her forehead and rubbing her back when some water went down the wrong pipe.

"I know you don't want to see my face, but I needed to make sure you're alright, so I came by every day to check up on you. And a good thing I did, too," he spoke quickly.

"You came by every day?"

Now waking up in here made sense, at least. He must've carried her in. Bits and pieces from her fever dreams were starting to come back. Something about a jungle? She couldn't really remember.

"Well, before you got sick," Jaime explained. "I'm sorry I didn't stay away, but I just couldn't. Since I found you facedown in the sand two days ago I've been staying here. You really had me worried for a while, you know?"  
"Oh."

She had been out of it for two whole days?!

"Don't worry now, your fever seems to have finally broken. Once you're better, you can kick me out."

Brienne began shaking her head, but stopped immediately when it made her dizzy.

"I was planning to come to you."  
"Huh?"  
"Before I blacked out. I wanted to come to you, but then I realized I wasn't going to make it. By then it was too late."  
"Does that mean you're not going to take my head off for ignoring your wishes and keeping an eye on you?"  
"Don't be silly. Thank you."  
"Errr...you're welcome."  
"I'm still really sleepy."  
"Well, then sleep. I'll be around."

Sinking back on her bed, Brienne closed her eyes.

"Think you can manage to eat something next time you wake up?" Jaime asked.  
"Possibly," Brienne replied drowsily. Not that she was particularly hungry, but she needed something to help her get her strength back, she knew.  
"I'll make sure to find something good then."  
"As soon as I'm well enough again, I'll help."  
"Don't think about that now. You just focus on getting better."  
"Thank you. For taking care of me."  
"Always."

Brienne had the distinct feeling that Jaime was still standing there, looking at her, but was too sleepy to actually check. It didn't take more than a few breaths until she fell asleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on, it goes only uphill ;)  
Also: I unfortunately couldn't find a spot to work it in, but I for one am totally headcanoning that when Brienne was sick, out of it, and Jaime was taking care of her, worried sick, he sang 'You are my sunshine' to her..


	11. Chapter 11

It was three days before Brienne felt halfway decent again. Thankfully there weren't any more weird dreams that she barely remembered past the knowledge that they had been weird. Whenever she woke up, Jaime was there, handing her the water bottle, or offering her some fruit. He even carried her outside so that she could go pee squatting against a palm or boulder while he walked a few steps away to give her privacy. Brienne was grateful for his presence and in the quiet times when she was awake and he was outside, working on some thing or the other, foraging for food or fetching water, she thought a lot about their situation. She had been really sick, according to Jaime it had been a close call shortly before her fever broke, but she'd fought through it. She wasn't ready to go. Not here, not like this. She wanted to live. Now she was getting better, still alive, and as long as she was, so she thought, there was hope. Living was hoping, wasn't it? Hoping for a better future, hoping to have your biggest dream fulfilled, hoping to see a certain day, event or person. She would adjust her hopes. Instead of hoping someone would find the, non-existent, flight recorder tomorrow, she was going to hope to see her dad again. Someway, somehow, someday. In the meantime, she would make the best of this, stop banking on tomorrow to be 'the day' and she'd start by stopping to count the days. She'd always prided herself in not giving up in the face of adversity, had never been a quitter. Time to act like it again.

It was a different quiet, knowing Jaime was just outside or at least in shouting distance. It was calming to know he was there. She'd wanted to go see him and talk to him before she'd gotten sick, maybe now was a good time to do that talking. Now that she had resolved some things and accepted the situation. Now that her anger had burned itself out along with the fever. When Jaime came back and after they'd had dinner, she declined his offer of carrying her outside, wanting to try to walk the distance by herself. He seemed disappointed over it.

"Gotta try to get back on my feet some time," Brienne explained.  
"Oh. Well, yeah sure, I mean, you're obviously on the mend, so.." Jaime trailed off, scratching his head.  
"Yeah..I mean, you can't carry me around forever."  
"Right. Uh, so, since it's getting dark already, is it okay if I stay this night or..?"  
"Of course."  
"Thanks. I'll be out of your hair in the morning then. I'll go...take care of..the fire."

He attempted to get up from his position on the floor and Brienne stopped him.

"Jaime, wait!"  
"Don't thank me again," He said, wearily, "You've done that enough the past few days and it's really unnecessary."  
"I wasn't. I mean, obviously I'm thankful, but actually I was wondering if it would be okay if I came back with you? To the original campsite, I mean."  
"What? You sure about that?" He asked, and a hopeful look lit up his eyes. Brienne nodded.  
"Yes, I am. If the past few days have shown anything, then it is that we can't afford to be at odds with each other. Or, well, me being at odds with you. So, I'd like to come back home. Assuming my spot is still available?" She ended with a lame quip.  
"You know it is. But we can work on a check-in system, some form of smoke signals or whatever if you're more comfortable here."  
"I'm not. I like the other place a lot better, to be honest."

Apart from the time when he'd taken care of her during her recovery, there weren't good memories to go with this new shelter. Only anger, sickness and despair. All of which Brienne couldn't wait to leave behind.

"But what about you being angry with me and almost-but-not-quite hating my guts?"  
"Look, I'm not going to apologize for running off or being angry. But--"  
"I deserved it," Jaime interrupted.  
"Yeah, somewhat. I was angry. I needed to work through my anger and I needed to collect my thoughts first. I've always been like that, working things out internally first. You'll have to admit that it was a pretty big bomb you let explode. I was shocked."  
"I'm so sorry."  
"You know, if I have to stop thanking you, you need to stop saying you're sorry. I know you are. It was a shitty way to handle the situation from your end, you should have told me a lot sooner, but it is what it is. We have to move on. I have to. And I forgive you. I mean it. You're a victim of one bad decision too."  
"You don't have to forgive me because I helped you when you needed help. I didn't do it to suck up to you."  
"I know that. And I'm not. Not because of that, anyway. You gave me a fake name, but everything else, it was real, wasn't it? The story about how you pulled your brother's loose baby tooth with a string while he slept?"  
"Happened," Jaime nodded, "He was six. And scared to death of the dentist."  
"And that thing about running over your own thumb while sitting on a skateboard?"

Jaime lifted his left hand, wiggling the thumb.

"Got a scar to prove it."  
"Getting mugged in Braavos?"  
"True. Nearly pissed my pants. Actually, for the sake of complete honesty, you can scratch that 'nearly'."  
"And we both know you're not lying when you say your singing isn't all that. Seems I do know you quite well after all."  
"Know what? You really do," Jaime agreed. "So..you'll come back? Just like that? I mean, I think it's a great idea and Gods know I missed you, but you were pretty determined to never talk to me again a few days ago."  
"Look, not everything is automatically perfect. I'll have to come to terms with the fact that any rescue we might have will be nothing but sheer luck and coincidence, and that it's not something that I can expect to happen. But maybe, after all this time, that's a given and I should've thought about it sooner. That's on me, not on you. And I'll get there eventually. You told me once there's a reason we survived this crash. It can't be that we're merely supposed to live here forever, that's a lame reason. So, eventually, something bigger will happen. I want to be there when it does, so that I know what it is. Besides, what else am I going to do but carry on? Lie down and give up? That's not me. If that were me, I would've given up when the plane crashed or straight after you told me the truth. I didn't. And I refuse to do things halfway. So, no giving up now either. Since apparently not even high fever stands a chance against my stubbornness."  
"Don't even joke about that. When it got so bad you wouldn't respond anymore, I was scared shitless. Before, you were at least occasionally mumbling some nonsense thing or other, but suddenly nothing. I really thought you could be dying and I didn't know what else to do. I'm just so glad you've made it through."  
"Alright, no more jokes about dying. You're the better joke teller anyway. And you can start by the fire once I'm back from peeing."  
"So...we're gonna be okay?"  
"I think so. I believe it. Something good needs to come from the past few days, so how about a fresh start?"

Brienne stuck out her hand.

"Hi. Brienne Tarth."

Jaime smiled crookedly, putting his hand in hers and shaking it.  
"Jaime Martyn Lannister. Nice to meet you."  
"Likewise."

Jaime closed his other hand over their still connected ones and looked at her seriously.  
"You're pretty astonishing, you know that, right?"  
"Sweet-talker," she tried to wave the compliment off with a roll of her eyes. Jaime stayed serious.  
"No, just being honest."

  
*  
The fresh start in the old shelter went smoother than Brienne would've thought. After the storm, there was some rebuilding to do that Jaime hadn't gotten to on account of taking care of her, and together they built their hut a little bigger and better than it already had been, collected wood for new signal fires, simply to be prepared for all eventualities, made new snares, and just moved on, living from day to day. They were here, might as well make the best of it. The fact that Brienne knew everything now and had forgiven him took a load off of Jaime's shoulders, it seemed. He was all smiles and Brienne had to admit that his good mood was infectious. Barely a week on her own had already been long enough to realize that being alone on a deserted island sucked even for someone that would fit the category of loner. Having someone to talk to, someone to cheer her up, someone to share the work with and someone that was simply there helped a lot.

Obviously, the fact that Jaime was fun to be around was not helping one bit in trying to tamper down the crush on him, which came back in full effect after barely two weeks had passed. Brienne wondered if she was too good-natured or too easily forgetting and forgiving if that could happen so fast, but ultimately decided she wasn't. As a person, Jaime was still more or less the same he'd always been, the same snark, the same loose mouth and the same cute moments, just happier, so really she was merely continuing where she'd left off. And as for being honest, at times he was even oversharing in his efforts to be trustworthy.

Brienne just, once more, hoped she could keep things from becoming awkward. They had a good thing here now, got along better than ever. Sometimes, she caught Jaime looking at her, with a soft smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He apparently also couldn't quite believe what a great team they made now and obviously not carrying any secrets any longer was definitely a mood booster for him as well. No need to mess that up with her feelings.

In the evenings, they had their bonfire talks again, and now that Jaime didn't have to keep track of what was safe to say and what not anymore, the stories of his childhood and career as pilot just bubbled out of him. Sometimes, it was actually hard to get a word in, but Brienne didn't mind. He truly was a great storyteller and she had time to imagine him in his crisp pilot uniform when she didn't have to say something. Which absolutely wasn't helpful to her predicament, but she just couldn't bring herself to care all that much. The imagery was too good.

  
*  
Standing in the water up to her waist, Brienne was once more aimed with her pronged stick. She tried to not move with the waves, be stockstill, be totally zen. Every now and then she thought she felt something touch her leg, but when she looked down, there was nothing. There were fish in these shallow waters, they just weren't dumb enough to come close. Maybe she would be better off trying to weave a net out of soft vines, or sacrifice part of her shirt to make a dip net, but this was a matter of principles now. Week after week she'd stood in the water with the stick, she wanted something for it. Everything else was going great lately, why couldn't this one thing go well also?

"Come on fishies. Just one. I promise I'll try to give you a quick death," she whispered, trying to entice one to come close enough. Then she waited.

Whether the fish were convinced by that lame promise, whether the Gods just had mercy on her, or whether she'd finally met the one suicidal fish in the ocean, Brienne would never know. All she registered was something dark about two yards away from her right hand shortly afterwards. The hand holding the spear. She aimed, held her breath and threw with all her strength. The stick shot into the water and when it floated up to the surface again, it was wiggling. On the pronged end of it was a fish! A decent sized one, too. Brienne let out an excited squeak and quickly waded over to her stick to grab the slippery bounty before anything could happen to it. When she grabbed the fish it was just wiggling its last wiggle. A quick death, as promised.

"Mother, father, maiden, smith, crone, warrior, stranger, drowned God, red God and whoever. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

Using the bottom half of her tshirt to make a sort-of bag and putting her precious treasure into it lest it slipped out of her hands, Brienne grinned from ear to ear. She grabbed her weapon with her free hand and waded out of the water. One fish was enough for the start, no need to be greedy. Or be disappointed in case this was a one-off. Right now she felt so accomplished. Oh, she couldn't wait to see the look on Jaime's face when she came back with seafood. They'd been lucky with his snares, having a bird, they had turned out to be wild fowls after all, in one of them about once a week, but this was something else.

She found him sitting in front of the hut, making a rope from dead plants to use for some new traps, chewing on a blade of grass, humming to himself.

"I got one!" She exclaimed, pulling the fish from her tshirt and holding it out proudly.

"What? You have? That's awesome!" Jaime called back, scrambling to his feet and hurrying towards her. Brienne thought he was going to inspect the fish, but he hardly even looked at it. Instead, he lifted her up and swung her around in a circle. Brienne tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that his pecs were pressing against her chest.

"Stop it! You'll drop me and then I'll drop dinner!" She admonished with a laugh instead.  
"You know I'm strong enough and we still have to clean your catch anyway."

Eventually, he did put her down again, his arms loosely around her waist, smiling.

"I'm proud of you. I would've called it quits weeks ago. Hell, I _have_ called it quits weeks ago. This deserves a feast."  
"This is already a feast in its own right."  
"You know what I mean. The whole program. You clean the fish and I'll get the sides. You've mastered spear fishing, that calls for a celebration in my book."  
"You don't have to, we still have those roots."  
"Yeah, but they're no feast food, they're at-least-it's-better-than-starving-food. It's fine, I wanted to check on some coconuts anyway. The new ones by the east shore should be good to harvest by now and there are some bushes that looked promising last time I went. I'll be right back."

Grabbing his trusty satchel, that meanwhile, like everything they used daily, had seen better days, Jaime took off at a brisk pace. Brienne looked after him for a moment. That hug had felt really _nice_.

After she'd returned from the brook, when the fish was ready to go on a spit, Jaime wasn't back yet. For a while, Brienne didn't think much of it. It wouldn't be the first time he took a detour because he'd seen something in his periphery he wanted to check. That's how he'd found a lot of plants and fruit that were now staples in their diet. But when he still wasn't back when the sun slowly began its afternoon travel across the sky, she started to get worried. He had said he'd be right back. It wasn't that far to the east shore, this was a small island after all, you could circle it in a day.

Eventually, after having waited some more, she wrapped the fish in some big leaves and left it in the hut, hoping no ants or other bugs would make it a feast of their own in her absence, and went to look for him. Just to make sure he was okay.  
He was indeed by the east shore, putting berries into his satchel.

"Did you get lost on the way?" Brienne asked when she got near him. Jaime looked up, surprised.  
"Uh, no?"  
"Then why are you still out here?"  
"I was busy."  
"Doing what?"  
"Exploring?"  
"Uh huh. Well, let's go. I've left our dinner unsupervised. And I'm getting hungry."  
"In a minute, gotta get the coconuts real quick."

He went to the nearest palm tree and started shaking it, but the damn coconuts wouldn't drop.  
"They're probably not fully ripe yet." He explained.  
"Leave them, we have enough to eat."  
"No, I can get them. Hold my bag."

Passing her the satchel, Jaime went to climb the tree. He was making fast progress, going up the palm as if he'd done this all his life. Brienne was impressed by the display and if she was not only admiring his climbing skills but also how his back muscles flexed as he went, well, that was not something he needed to know.

"Be careful!" She cautioned instead.  
"Yeah, yeah. I got this."

Only seconds after, two coconuts neatly dropped one after the other in front of her feet.  
"See? Easy as pie," Jaime called down with a note of smugness, as he began his descent. "Speaking of pie, you know what would be aweso--shit!"

The rest of his sentence got lost as his hand slipped on the trunk and he fell to the ground with a resounding thud right next to Brienne.

"Jaime!"

She dropped the satchel and the coconuts she'd picked up and dropped to her knees right next to him.

"Are you alright?"

He wasn't answering. Just lying there, unblinking, looking up to the tree from which he'd just fallen.

"Jaime, I swear if you're pranking me and fake amnesia again, I'm going to take revenge."

Still no answer. Not even a painful groan. Brienne carefully started to assess him for any broken bones. He didn't even flinch.

"Jaime? Talk to me!" She nearly screamed and then added in a quiet voice, "Are you alive?"

Jaime still didn't respond. He just finally shifted his focus from the tree to her and gave her the weirdest look. Then, his arm shot up and grabbed Brienne by the back of her neck, pulling her down. And then he was kissing her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fishing success!!!  



	12. Chapter 12

For a moment, Brienne didn't react. She couldn't, she was too dumbfounded to do anything. Here she was, worried for Jaime's life and he just kissed her? Or, was still kissing her, to be exact. Good gods, he was still kissing her! His lips were warm and soft and touching hers with a swoonworthy and perfect amount of pressure while his thumb was gently stroking over the skin of her neck. It was a really good kiss, too, but he'd just hit his head, so who knew if he was truly coherent. She finally allowed herself one moment of pressing back against his lips with hers, before she pushed off of him. He seemed very reluctant to let her go, keeping his hand on the back of her neck as long as possible and looking at her with a mixture of excitement and wariness. Brienne dropped back onto her knees, her fingertips touching her lips that were somehow very tingly.

"You kissed me," she stated the obvious. It came out more a croak.  
"I did," Jaime replied, slowly sitting up, all the while keeping his eyes on her.  
"Why?"  
"Because I couldn't not kiss you any longer," he simply said.  
"Did you bump your head?"

Jaime chuckled. Brienne glared at him. It wasn't a stupid question. People with head injuries could do all sorts of untypical things. Maybe kissing was one of them.  
"I did, but not in the way you think. I guess you could say I knocked some sense into myself."

"I don't understand."

Jaime took her free hand and shuffled closer.

"It's not like my whole life flashed in front of me or anything, but when I landed, for a moment, I really didn't know if I was okay or not. Then, when I realized I was, I thought that there really have been enough brushes with death between the both of us, and that I don't want to die without finally getting to kiss you."

"What?" Was this just part of his bucket list? Brienne didn't know whether to feel insulted or not.  
"Wait, that came out all wrong." Jaime hurried to say. "I don't have any intentions of dying now that I have kissed you either. In fact, I have absolutely none. I just..I've been thinking about it for a while now but I didn't want to ruin things between us by making everything weird or make you run off because you don't want me in that way or something like that. And I know that it's still a possibility and I promise that, if you want to, we can try to forget about it and just be friends. You'll never have to worry about me not having control over myself. Okay, I lost some of it just now, but you were so cute checking me over and I just couldn't help myself any longer. I apologize if--" he babbled.  
"How long?" Brienne interrupted him for a change.  
"What?"  
"How long have you been thinking about kissing me?"  
"Since about a month after we landed here? We were sitting by the fire, you told a story, and blushed over some thing or other and it was cute and the thought just popped up and didn't leave me again. I knew I couldn't act on it and try to gauge your feelings on the matter. Not while I wasn't honest with you about myself. It would've been unfair. So, since I didn't know how to do that, how to come clean without ruining everything, I tried to forget about the desire to kiss you. Which worked abysmally by the way and was quite frustrating the more I got to know you. But then the truth came out and there were no more bad secrets standing in the way. As far as that goes, that second storm was rather helpful. It did ruin everything, but we rebuilt. I've been pretty much constantly thinking about it since we came back after you were sick and you forgave me. Trying to figure out how to go about letting you know. Especially since..I mean, tell me I'm completely reading the situation wrong, but lately I got the impression you may be feeling something for me too."

Which was only the truth. Still, Brienne wasn't ready to reveal that detail to him just yet.

"We're the only two people here. It's only natural that there's going to be some attraction at some point," she voiced the same logic that she had fruitlessly tried on herself weeks ago. Just because it didn't work on her didn't mean it wasn't a valid point, logically.  
"I don't want you simply because you're the only woman here!" Jaime immediately gave back, sounding affronted.  
"I know how I look. You yourself mistook me for a man the first time we met!"  
"I think we've established at this point that I sometimes can be an ass that says outrageous things to get a reaction. But trust me, I've been living celibate long before we met, it takes more than just being a female to catch my eye. There could be a hundred women on this island and I'd still want you. This is as real as it gets for me. I mean, you must know how amazing you are. We've been here for months now and you continually manage to impress me. Your strength, your determination, your grit, your kindness, your...everything. There's no one I can think of that I'd rather be stranded here. And I know how you look as well. At this point better than you do, probably. I like what I see."  
"Sunburns and scowls and freckles.." Brienne rattled off.  
"Astonishing blue eyes, an honest face, toned muscles and a killer body that I wouldn't mind seeing more of. Eventually, of course." Jaime countered.  
"Now wait a minute," Brienne objected. "I remember exactly how you said '_No, no, not you. You keep yours on_' when you decided to go half naked to preserve your shirt for when it's needed and I said I should probably preserve mine as well."

Not that she would've fancied walking around in her bra, but his argument had made sense.

"Because you would've burnt even more into a crisp with that pale skin of yours! That's the only reason."  
"Oh."  
"Yeah. _Oh_."

There was a pause. Brienne replayed the past weeks in her head, dissecting things Jaime had said or done and wondering if she should've gotten a clue some time. Him trying to win her favour as he'd called it had been more than it seemed, after all.

"So...you never flat out told me I was wrong assuming you were feeling something too.." Jaime eventually broke into her thoughts.

Brienne blushed.  
"And I had thought I was doing such a good job keeping it to myself," she mumbled, looking away, somewhat embarrassed over apparently not having been as stealthy and smooth as she'd thought.  
"You did!" Jaime laughed, "If you hadn't, I would've kissed you days ago, believe me."

He picked up their hands and intertwined their fingers.

"And am I also right in assuming it is also not because I happen to be the only guy on this island? Even though I am of course an outstanding specimen of the male--"  
"Ass."  
"Why thank you, but I said 'am' not 'have'."  
"You were being all smug about being right."  
"Not smug. Happy."  
"Smugly happy."  
"So...if I were to kiss you again, you wouldn't hate it?" Jaime asked, his eyes already focusing on Brienne's lips. She nervously bit the bottom one. He mimicked it on his.  
"I guess not. Depends on whether you are a good kisser, of course," she tried to act nonchalant while her heart already began to race.  
"Oh, I'm an excellent kisser. If before hasn't convinced you of it already, care for a demonstration right now?"  
"Wouldn't be adverse to it," she shrugged in fake indifference.

Jaime put his free hand on her cheek and leaned in. Brienne closed her eyes and her nonchalance flew out the non-existent window. A heartbeat later his lips were gently brushing over hers, beginning to show her everything they could do, and this time she didn't hesitate to return it.  
As it turned out, he really was an excellent kisser.

  
*  
Brienne would've been perfectly fine if they'd just stayed there, sitting on their knees in the sand, kissing. As it was, after some time, the sun began to sink beneath the horizon, meaning they'd soon be out of light and traipsing blindly across the island on their way back home, and so, reluctantly, Brienne began to disentangle herself from the embrace they'd been in. Jaime followed her movements for a moment, trying to catch her lips once more, before he got the memo that kissing was over for the moment. The pout he gave her almost made her reconsider.

"It's getting late.." Brienne offered as explanation. Jaime looked up, like he hadn't even realized it was getting chilly with the disappearance of the sun.  
"Oh. When did that happen?"

Brienne couldn't help but give a little smirk over the fact that she'd made him forget about their surroundings. Apparently, Jaime wasn't the only excellent kisser on this island.

"We better head back. We have no torch with us."

Jaime nodded and got to his feet with a groan, before stretching out his hand to help Brienne up as well. She took it immediately.

"You alright?" she asked.  
"I'm gonna have a nice selection of bruises from that fall, but it's alright. Definitely worth it. Let's go celebrate."

Not letting go of her hand, he grabbed his satchel and slung it over his shoulder. They each grabbed one coconut in their free hand and began the walk back to the hut. Neither of them was in any hurry in spite of it being late in the day, and so they made it just in time before night fell completely. The fish was still there, thankfully untouched, but if it weren't for the fact that they couldn't afford to waste any food, Brienne would've been fine with skipping dinner. She did the honors of grilling it, while Jaime went to free the coconuts from their husks. All the while throwing each other glances that let the other one know that the food wasn't the most important thing on their minds.

After a delicious fish dinner and performing all the tasks and chores that were necessary at the end of the day, they sat together in front of the bonfire. First Brienne wasn't sure how to go about it now and plopped down in her regular spot. Jaime however wasn't having it and simply sat right behind her. His arms encircled her and he had his chin on her shoulder, occasionally brushing her neck with his lips. There was no awkwardness, it felt as if they'd been doing this for ages. Brienne lazily stroked his forearms and they just sat there, watching the fire, without the need for any talk, just being content in the moment.

"So when did you know you had the hots for me?" Jaime eventually broke the silence.  
"Excuse me?"  
"When did you know, you know? Was it before or after me?"  
"Is it important?"  
"Not really. I just want to know."  
"...Around the same time," she finally confessed.  
"Maybe this is it. The thing we were wondering about. The reason for all of this. Being stranded and all. Maybe it needed to happen so that this moment could happen."  
"You really believe that?"

She felt Jaime shrug behind her.

"Well, there's also that thing about how maybe I'm supposed to stop running from myself, be who I am and accept the cards that I've been dealt without trying to cheat the dealer, but I like the other one a lot better. I'm a romantic. Anyway, I think there's no harm in believing it."

Brienne thought about it for a moment. She had said herself that something big had to happen eventually, something that made sense of everything, made it worth it. If it hadn't been for the crash and getting stranded here, their ways would've parted after three hours and they'd never gotten to know each other. The Gods interfering like this was a bit too drastic for her likes, they could've had them bump into each other on Jaime's home island during the last week of her vacation instead if they wanted to make a point, but in lieu of a better reason, she'd take it for now. Even though it was truly and honestly awfully cheesy. But then again, she'd always enjoyed a good romantic story.

"I think you're right insofar that there's no harm in believing it," she eventually agreed somewhat.

Feeling bold, Brienne breathed a kiss on Jaime's bearded cheek. His hand came up, cupping her face, not letting her retreat while he shifted his position to get better access to her lips. And then they forgot all about their surroundings again.

  
*  
When Brienne woke, she felt a tickling sensation on the back of her neck and something heavy was draped over her stomach. She smiled to herself, laying there with her eyes still closed. Jaime was a snuggler. During their first night in their place, back when it had been a drafty lean-to, they'd huddled together out of necessity, simply because they didn't have anything to cover themselves with. Together with beginning to expand the lean-to into a hut and building better walls, making it less drafty, they'd made two separate heaps of leaves as beds for each of them the next day. That second heap was still there, but it hadn't been used last night.  
They had, in lack of a better term, made out like a pair of teenagers in front of their fire, sharing kisses and caresses, switching back and forth from slow over tender to heated again and again until the fire had gone out, leaving them in darkness. Not that it deterred them. Once the dam had been broken by Jaime giving her that first kiss after his fall, it was hard to stop again. Eventually, yawns had snuck in between their kisses though and so they had wordlessly moved from the fireplace to the hut. Too tired to do much else, they laid down on the first heap of leaves they came across and quickly fallen asleep.

Now, in the morning light, as she finally openend her eyes, Brienne looked around, blinking. It was the same hut, but it felt so very different. She couldn't quite believe that, for the first time in a long time, it seemed she was lucky when it came to her heart, having her feelings reciprocated. And yes, things may have gone quite fast in the span of only one day, and they'd have to do some talking about what it meant and how it would go on, but she couldn't find it in her to regret anything. It wasn't a given to find that kind of happines, especially when one was stranded on an island, but they had and there was no reason not to enjoy it. Could it all go awry some day and blow up in their faces? Yeah, of course. There was no more guarantee here than in the real world. But why worry about what could go wrong when it may never happen? Besides, they'd truly had their fair share of squabbles and fights during their time here, and so far they had always managed to sort it out in the end. If the day ever came where things between them went sour, they could handle it like adults. But who could say if that day would ever come..

"Copper star for your thoughts?" Jaime sleepily murmured in her ear, giving her pleasurable goosebumps.  
"Sorry. You don't have a copper star to buy access to my thoughts with."  
"We can come up with a shell currency system or something if we put our minds to it? I'm sure your thoughts would be worth the effort."  
"How did you know I was awake anyway?" Brienne switched away from the topic of her thoughts.  
"Duh. Your breathing changed."  
"Have you been watching me sleep?" She asked, turning around under the arm still draped over her middle. Jaime looked at her sheepishly.  
"Maybe a little. Unless you think it's creepy, in which case I just woke up myself."  
"It is a little creepy.. but I think I can let it slide this one time."  
"Good to know. I shall try to minimize the creepy staring in the future then. Good morning."

He smiled at her and his eyes dropped to her mouth, letting Brienne know that he felt a good morning kiss would be an excellent way to start the day. She decided he was right and tilted her chin up for a quick peck.

"Good morning. So, if you were awake before me, what were you thinking about?"  
"I was thinking that...we should take the day off."  
"Off?"  
"Mh-hm," Jaime nodded, "No working, no weaving, no foraging, no fishing, no nothing. We can afford one day off without the house collapsing around us."  
"What are we going to eat?"  
"Okay, a little while to pluck some fruit, but other than that let's just..be."  
"And what would just being entail?"  
"Well...some of this," he began, brushing his lips along Brienne's neck.  
"Some of this," he continued, sliding his hand along her back.  
"And maybe some of this," he ended with a devious grin and began tickling her. Brienne writhed around on the heap of leaves, trying to escape the tickling fingers.  
"Okay, you can keep that last part to yourself!" She laughed when she'd finally gotten away, "but other than that, you got yourself a deal. For today, let's just be."

He did have really good arguments on his side.


	13. Chapter 13

"Wait," Jaime croaked, before rolling to the side of their shared bed, panting. "Timeout."

"What's wrong?" Brienne asked, equally panting and a bit annoyed. This was not the first time he'd called for one ever since they'd gotten together, in fact he always did. They made out happily all over the island and had become quite familiar with each other's hands and mouths, but so far, technically, no actual consummation had taken place. It was becoming a bit unnerving, actually. Brienne hadn't want to flat out ask Jaime why he always stopped, after all, he never left her wanting using other ways, but she had started to wonder if he wasn't willing to take that final step because he was secretly worried this was an island-only thing. Which it wasn't. Not for her, anyway. But if he considered it that way, she didn't really want to know and so she'd kept quiet. Until now. Now she wanted answers.

"Nothing, I just need to step on the brakes."  
"Is everything okay?"  
"More than okay." He said, leaning over to kiss her quickly.

Okay so he wasn't forthcoming. She was going to have to do this by herself. Sitting up, Brienne steeled herself.

"Then why--is it because--is it me?"  
"What?!" Jaime's head snapped in her direction, giving her a look that clearly conveyed he was wondering whether she was crazy and he sat up as well.  
"You heard me," Brienne insisted.  
"How could you even think that?"  
"Well, you do this every time when.."  
"Do I look like a man that doesn't want you?" Jaime said, looking pointedly down at himself.

Brienne shrugged, looking away. Now she remembered why she didn't want to have this conversation. It made her feel stupid.

"Hey.." Jaime said, putting a finger under her chin and tilting it up so that she had to look at him, "..stop thinking crap. I thought we had cleared this up. I told you: As real as it gets."  
"But--"  
"But while I am a man of many talents, obstetrics is not one of them."  
"Oh... _Oh_!"

Okay, that was one reason Brienne hadn't expected to hear from him. In fact, she hadn't even considered the possibility. Well, how dumb was that? No matter where in the world, she was certainly not ready or eager to be anybody's mother. Suddenly, she was very grateful for all that slamming on brakes Jaime had done in the last weeks. At least one of them was still using their head for thinking, it seemed.

"Yeah. Oh. We're both healthy enough and young. Well, you're young. I'm..slightly less so but still in pretty good shape."

In spite of the seriousness of the topic, Brienne had to roll her eyes at that. She should've never told Jaime about the handful of grey hairs in his beard.

"I still have hope we'll make it off this island, you know? And when we do..after I've found some protection, if you want to, we will definitely rock both our worlds, promise."

That stopped the eye-roll immediately.

"When we make it off the..it could be years until some scientist comes by to look at the wildlife or plants, if ever, you know that, right?"

Somehow she didn't like that thought one bit. Now that she was finally content with living here, he gave her a new reason to want to get away?!

"I'll probably fail at some point, but let me at least try to do the smart thing for a while? Be a man of principle?"  
"Oh and I'm the wanton floozy?"  
"No, you're my siren. And you don't know how hard it is to resist your calling," Jaime said, kissing her shoulder. Brienne snorted, this time definitely going with the eye roll.  
"You are so horribly cheesy."  
"Romantic. There's a difference," Jaime insisted.  
"If you say so.."  
"Hey, whatever you want to call it, you're into it."

He had her there. She was very much into it, which Brienne conceded with a nod.

"So, everything okay? No more stupid thoughts about me not wanting all of you?"  
"No more stupid thoughts."  
"Good. Because timeout is officially over."

And before Brienne could say anything else, Jaime pounced.

  
***  
The past few weeks had been wonderful. So much so, that Brienne thought at times the island was starting to feel positively paradisaical. Of course, they couldn't take every day off, there was forever too much work to go around for that, but they made sure to have healthy-sized breaks in their separate daily chores during which they always found each other. Talked a lot. About their dreams, their wishes, their future here. Both of them still harbored the hope of getting back to civilisation, but in the meantime they could have a good life here. Be content. And every day that it rained was welcome now, because it meant they could snuggle up in their hut.

The one day they had taken off had been perfect. They'd strolled over the island, showing each other their favorite spots, lay around lazily, and Brienne had demonstrated her art talent by drawing a carricature of Jaime in the wet sand with a stick and her fingers to get back at him for that sneaky tickling attack. He'd chased her around the beach for a good bit after that, before they'd gone for a long swim in the ocean, having a race and dunking contest and finally made out on the shore while the surf gently washed around them like in an old movie Brienne had once seen. Almost paradaisical, indeed.

When Brienne had promised herself after she'd been sick to stop counting the days and live in the now, she'd kept to it, so there was no saying how long exactly they'd been on their island now. Three months definitely as per her own biological clock, though it could've been also four. For the longest time, she would've never thought she could be truly happy here, at the end of the world, but...she was. Of course, that had a lot to do with Jaime, but there was a general peacefulness to life on the island. It was simple, sure, but that wasn't a bad thing. If there'd been a way to get a message out to her father, letting him know she was alright, she would've considered herself almost perfectly happy. Sure, the worries about everything that could go wrong still flared up every now and then, but so far things had always turned out okay in the end and there was nothing they could do but be careful anyway. If her lesson living here had been that she needed to start relying on people, to not do everything on her own, to be more spontaneous and maybe less stubborn, it was a lesson she had meanwhile learned.

  
"What'cha doin?" Jaime asked, sitting down next to her in the sand by the beach where she was watching the ocean, nudging her shoulder with his.  
"Oh you know..just pondering the big questions.." Brienne replied, nudging his shoulder back.  
"Like what?"  
"Uhm...the meaning of life, the existence of higher powers..."  
"Ah. The heavy stuff."  
"..is it wrong to wish for a chocolate cake more than for a change of clothes.." Brienne continued with a smirk.  
"Absolutely not. Chocolate always wins. Everyone knows that."  
"Glad we're on the same page with that."  
"Besides, once the clothes we're wearing start falling apart, we can always go naked."  
"You mean those of us that aren't prone to sunburn."  
"I guess there is that. Well, since I've preserved my t-shirt from day one, that's still good. You can have that when the one you're wearing goes to threads."  
"Thanks."

An offer she would definitely take Jaime up on should it become necessary. Traipsing around the island, doing everyday chores, without a stitch of clothes on her body wasn't something Brienne could see herself being comfortable with. There may come a day when it couldn't be avoided any longer, but she was going to drag that out as long as possible.

"Or maybe a grass skirt and coconut bra?" Jaime continued, wagging his eyebrows, "You could perform an exotic dance.."

Brienne snorted, "I'll wear a coconut bra when you wear a loincloth."

"Is that a dare?"  
"Hardly. We both know you would do it in a heartbeat."  
"That is very true," he conceded with a nod of his head.  
"So what brings you out here? I thought you wanted to go to the other shore."  
"I went. Actually, I came here to fetch you for lunch. Not my fault that thinking of chocolate cake has robbed you of your perception of time. But then again, you can be hardly blamed for that. It is a stellar topic for daydreaming."  
"Actually I was thinking that I'm happy. Truly happy. Not in a happy-for-a-stranded-person way."  
"I'm glad you are," Jaime smiled, putting an arm around Brienne to pull her against his side and kissing her temple. "I'm very happy too."

For a while they just sat there, watching the vast and calm ocean together, not speaking.

"I still want a chocolate cake though," Brienne finally broke the silence.  
"Sunshine, if I could, I'd buy you all the chocolate in the world. Minus a few bars for me."  
"With all the chocolate in the world, I would of course share."  
"That's good to know."  
"Sure. You can have all the white chocolate."  
"Yuck!"  
"And the marzipans."  
"Why, you little..this means war!"  
"Only if you can get me!" Brienne declared, jumping up from her sitting position and running off. Jaime immediately took off after her and chased her around the beach, Brienne dodging him and turning and zigzagging like a rabbit. Eventually, Jaime caught up to her and feinted a quick turn to the right only to leap to the left and catch her. They both went down into the soft sand, out of breath, but grinning like a pair of loons. Brienne found herself pinned underneath Jaime.

"Truce?" She asked innocently.  
"Oh, now you want a truce? Now that I'm winning?"  
"You were not winning!" She exclaimed with indignation. After all, it had been just one small mistake on her part that had led to their current position. Before that, she'd been on the winning side.  
"Really? Because from my point of view it looks like I came out on top."

Brienne huffed. Technically, he was right, but that didn't mean she had to admit it just yet.

"This is a draw at best, hence the truce," she therefore insisted. Jaime smirked down at her, raising his eyebrows.  
"Alright, if we're going to have a truce, what peace terms are you offering, my lady?"  
"Hmm..you can have all the nougat filled chocolate in the world as well?"  
"I was thinking of something a little less hypothetical.."  
"The next mosquito bite you get will be scratched to your satisfaction?"  
"Now that is tempting, but what else have you got?"  
"Well, why don't you make me an offer? This truce has to be worth it for me as well, after all."  
"Oh I think can make it definitely worth your while," Jaime murmured. He released her wrists and wrapped his arms around Brienne's waist instead, before rolling them so that she was on top of him.  
"First of all, I volunteer to be the one to get sand in all the odd places," he grinned.  
"Very generous, indeed."  
"Mh-hm.." Jaime agreed and leaned up to gain access to her neck.   
"I guess it's my turn then to make an offer again.." She gasped as his lips began their journey down her throat. Jaime's answer came in the form of a noncomittal hum, seeing as he was busy nibbling on her neck and soothing the spots he'd nibbled on with his tongue.   
"You're.. very distracting.. you know?"  
"Not distracting enough, it seems." Jaime mumbled, his hand going into Brienne's hair to help gently tilt her neck the way he wanted it to.  
"Very, very distracting..I can't even..remember what I wanted..to offer.."  
"Brienne?" Jaime asked, pulling back to look at her with half-lidded eyes.  
"Yeah?"  
"Just kiss me."

So she did.

Whatever Jaime had found for them for lunch was probably being claimed by the insects as they kissed again and again, but Brienne couldn't find it in herself to care very much. Their kisses, the caresses, the little sounds Jaime made in the back of his throat as she began kissing down his chest, her own little gasps..it all felt too good to care about trivialites like food. In the end, they both came to lie in the sand beneath the other one a few times..  
  
Eventually, it was Brienne that pulled back. Regretfully so. Ever since Jaime had clued her in why he was trying to be the voice of reason in their heated moments, the little voice of reason inside her own head had not let her forget that he was right about it. Even though it was getting harder and harder to listen.

"We should head back.."

Jaime took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his eyes focused on her lips that must've looked rather swollen. They sure felt that way.

"Are you sure I can't persuade you to stay a little longer here?" He asked with a breathy voice.  
"No, I'm not," Brienne replied truthfully, "That's why we should."

After a long sigh, Jaime nodded grudgingly.

"My principles thank you." He leaned up for a last, lingering kiss, for now. "Let's go do some chores to get our minds off further truce negotiations."

They got up and shook the sand out of their hair and what little clothes they wore, before beginning the walk back home to their hut.

"Shoot, I forgot my shoes," Brienne realized when they'd reached the treeline.

She only wore them when she had to in order to prolong their life, so whenever Brienne arrived at the beach after walking through the undergrowth, off they came.

"I'll get them. A little extra walking can only do me good."

Jaime turned around to walk back to the spot where he'd originally found Brienne sitting, before their impromptu game of catch. She used the time to shake her head once more to get the last bit of sand out of it. And to put her t-shirt back on the right way, since she was currently wearing it inside out.

"Brienne! Come quick!" Jaime yelled, just as she'd put her second arm through the sleeve. He sounded serious.  
"What? What is it?" Brienne yelled back, already running out from behind the treeline.  
"Look!"

  
Jaime pointed to the horizon and Brienne's gaze followed his outstretched arm. There was a small dot within the ocean. A boat. And it was coming in their direction!


	14. Chapter 14

For a moment, Brienne found she couldn't move, simply out of sheer shock over seeing that boat. Her heart thrummed fast and she got goosebumps. Yet she didn't want to let herself hope just yet. The boat may still veer off and disappear again.

"We have to light the fires!" She exclaimed frantically.

But Jaime had already sprinted off to the first stack of wood he could reach and kindled a fire with the help of his trusty old lighter and some dry coconut husks for tinder. Brienne finally thawed from her frozen position, raced after him, took the lighter from his hand and ran on to the next stack while he made sure his fire stayed lit and grew.

_Please don't turn around...please don't turn around..._

Tending to her flame and making sure it didn't die, Brienne looked to the boat, not letting it out of her sight, willing it to come closer and closer. They had to see the fires, they just had to! It would be too cruel to dangle the hope of being found in front of them and then snatch it away. Once her fire was blazing, Brienne ran back to the shore, waving frantically and shouting.

As the boat drew nearer, she could make out three people on board. Two adults and a child from the looks of it. Maybe vacationers off-course their excursion route that were now in for the surprise of their lives? No matter. They were here and they would soon gain two more passengers. Jaime had joined her after lighting one stack more and was waving his arms around wildly as well, hollering for good measure, even though it was now certain the passengers had seen them.

When the boat, or yacht as it actually were, had drawn as close as it could, the anchor was dropped. One of the passengers threw a lifeboat over the ship's rail which inflated as it sailed through the air. The three people on board climbed down a ladder into the lifeboat and the two adults paddled them towards the shore as Jaime and Brienne watched.

"Brienne!"

Brienne's knees almost buckled. She knew that voice. It was the voice that had chased all bad dreams away when she'd been a child, the voice that had always been there to tell her everything would be alright. It was her father.

"Dad!" She yelled back at the top of her lungs, tears already in her eyes.

There was a splash and the next thing she blurrily saw was her dad wading through the water towards her, as fast as he could. Brienne ran towards him, right into his arms. Her father lifted her up and gave her the hardest hug she'd ever gotten. She returned it just as hard with trembling arms.

"I knew you were alive! I knew it!" He sobbed.  
"Daddy.." was all that Brienne could manage to say. She hugged her father again, letting the tears fall freely, just feeling his solid presence against her and cherishing it. Eventually, her dad put her down again but they remained standing locked in their embrace.

"Dad, you're in the water," Brienne sniffled when she'd calmed down a little and realized that they were still in the ocean.  
"I don't care." Her father replied, taking one arm off her waist to first brush her tears away with his thumb and then his own, smiling at her. She wanted to start bawling happy tears.  
"Still, let's get out. There's someone I want you to meet."

They finally broke their hug and waded out of the water, all the while having an arm around the other one. Meanwhile, the lifeboat had finally made it to the shore and the other adult, likely the yacht's captain, had jumped out to pull it onto the sand. Brienne realized that the child still sitting in the lifeboat wasn't a child after all, but a dwarf. Since she meanwhile had heard everything about him, she knew it to be Jaime's brother. She stopped halfway on the way to Jaime, wanting the brothers to have their reunion undisturbed. Jaime's brother waited until the lifeboat was no longer being moved and then awkwardly climbed out of it, waddling the few steps towards Jaime who was still standing in the same spot.

"Jaime," he greeted with a nod.  
"Tyrion. I --"  
"Why can't you live in our century like the rest of mankind? Do you know how much easier and quicker I would've found you if you used a computer or any kind of logical filing system like any other respectable business owner?"

Brienne's eyebrows rose towards her hairline. _That_ was how Jaime's brother was greeting him?  
"Uh..I'm sorry about that?" Jaime replied, a questioning look on his features.

Tyrion shook his head while a huge grin spread over his face.

"Just come here you big oaf before I embarrass myself by climbing you! I missed you!"

He spread his arms, and Jaime hurried over the few steps towards him and sank to his knees, hugging his little brother.

"How did you find us?" He asked, when they'd released each other.  
"About two months ago, I called you and got no answer for weeks which is not like you. So I eventually flew out here to pay you a visit in person only to find your place deserted. I turned over every stone on your island, no trace of you or the Goose. So I figured, okay, he's off somewhere, hopefully getting his rocks off for once. I was actually happy for you. Was almost on my way back to Westeros when I bumped into this woman who was searching for her having mysteriously disappeared friend. Two disappearances at the same time couldn't be coincidence so we teamed up to investigate further."  
"What woman?" Jaime asked.  
"Margaery Tyrell. She's--"  
"Marge is here?" Brienne interrupted. Tyrion turned around to face her.  
"Yes, she is. She's on another boat right now, checking another island. She's flown out to the Summer isles every chance she got for months now, asking around for you, Brienne. "

A wave of warmth spread all over Brienne, making her shiver. Her friend had never given up the hope of finding her, had never given in all these months.

"The police was no help whatsoever to either of us. So we joined forces and after playing connect-the-dots and scavenger hunt for a while came to the conclusion that you hadn't run off together but that something must've happened to you. When we discussed possibilities of what could've happened and Margaery mentioned a plane crash, I vehemently vetoed it, saying that my brother doesn't crash. So we focused on crime first, thinking maybe you'd been kidnapped or murdered and Jaime's plane was simply stolen. Until I found your flight receipt stuffed into his cluttered desk because _he_ didn't file it properly."

Turning back to his brother and giving him a pointed look, Tyrion continued as Jaime mumbled "Alright, alright, I got it."

"About a week ago the wreck of your plane was finally found. Worst day of my life until we realized it was empty and from the looks of it there may still be a chance you're alive which coincidentally turned it into the best day of my life. Well, second-best now. So plans were made and Mister Tarth here flew in from the Essosi mainland where he'd been looking for his daughter. We've been going from island to island for four days now, searching them thoroughly. You're quite a distance away from the spot where the wreck of your plane is, you know?"  
"I kinda figured as much. We were more than two thirds down the islands when it all happened."  
"I'm so sorry I didn't check on you sooner, brother," Tyrion said, looking down and sounding ashamed, "I maybe could've found you months ago if I'd just called and found out that you weren't there."  
"You're here now," Jaime replied, giving his brother's shoulder a squeeze.  
"That I am. Still, we have to work on our communication."  
"We can do that. We have the time, now."  
"Yes, we do."

The brothers looked at each other for a long moment before Tyrion cleared his throat.

"Gods, look at you. You look like a bear," he commented, shaking his head with a smile.  
"Hey now, don't hate on the beard," Jaime replied, stroking it for good measure.  
"I'm not. I'm jealous as fuck that you can even pull off this look."  
"That sounds better," Jaime grinned.  
"So, are you two ready to blow this joint and rejoin civilisation?" Tyrion asked, once more turning sideways to face Brienne and her father.  
"Definitely. Just have to get our things first," she said.  
"Things? What things?"  
"You know...just the few things that served us well while we were here.."  
"Don't you want to see where and how we've lived?" Jaime asked his brother.  
"But of course! I find it highly fascinating. Lead on!"

Tyrion made a gesture for Jaime to go ahead, and they began the short trek back to the brook and their hut, showing this and that on the way and talking about their daily lives here while the captain stayed back to wait by the boat. Once they proudly showed off their humble abode, her father and Jaime's brother were quite impressed with the architecture and all the things they had managed, asserting more than once that they didn't know if they'd themselves would have made it. Still, it wasn't very long before Brienne had collected her fishing stick and Jaime his satchel plus the trusty old plastic bottle and they, after a long last look at and a silent goodbye to the hut, made the trip back to the beach, and the lifeboat. Her dad didn't want to hear any attempt of Brienne or Jaime to get him to let them take up his paddle and so she sat in the back as the captain, introduced as Bronn Blackwater, and her father brought them back to the yacht.

After they had boarded, and captain Bronn started the engine, Brienne went to the rear end of the yacht, watching the island become smaller and smaller, the oddest feeling in her chest. It wasn't quite sadness, but there was definitely a certain melancholy.

"You okay, Sunshine?" Jaime asked, coming up behind her, putting his arms around her.

Brienne put her hand in her jeans' pocket, holding the blue conch shell Jaime had given her months ago, the item she really had wanted to go back for before they'd left.  
"..I am," She replied after a moment's pause, "It's just weird. I kinda miss it already."  
"I know what you mean. Temporary or not, it was home."  
"Yeah.." Brienne replied, trailing off. She was glad to soon be back in civilisation, back in a place with flushing water and toothbrushes and doctors and she was definitely more than elated to be able to hug her father and know that he wasn't going to have to worry about her anymore or live with the uncertainty of what had happened to her. But there was a new question mark now on the horizon. What would happen to Jaime and her? She didn't doubt her feelings for him, or his for that matter. But sometimes feelings weren't enough. There was a whole ocean between their everyday lives off this island, for one.

"You know, lately I've been thinking.." Jaime eventually broke the silence.  
"About what?"  
"Well, it'll be a while until my crappy insurance company coughs up at least some money for the Goose and my brother has quite a nice penthouse in King's Landing with a guest room. Guest suite, really, or so he said. So I was thinking that maybe I could hang out there for a while and..you know..see how I fit in. In Westeros, I mean."  
"You'd come to King's Landing for me?" Brienne asked, spinning around to face Jaime.  
"Of course. I told you: This is as real as it gets for me. Unless y-"  
"Yes! I mean, I want you to. I mean..you know what I mean."

The news made her quite speechless. She would've never asked it of him, understood well that he had a whole life in Essos. Jaime smiled upon her enthusiasm and gave her a quick kiss.

"Tyrion has made quite the career within the family business and he's well connected. Knows the best lawyers and such. Maybe there's a chance to get the ban revoked or at least amended into allowing me to do what I've been doing the last few years or be a flight instructor. I'm okay if they don't let me fly jumbos, the uniforms never really were my style anyway."  
"And what if they won't?"  
"I'm not sure. I love flying too much to give it up forever, but I also can't go back to the way it was. I won't. No more running."

Brienne nodded. Jaime'd told her already shortly after the crash that he would fly again, given the chance and opportunity. That one was supposed to get back onto the horse after one had fallen off and all that. That the chances of being in two plane crashes were extremely low. He was probably right about it all. She still was going home to King's Landing via ship.

"Back when it all had happened, with Aerys, the aftermath..I just let it all happen to me. I was too dazed to put up much of a fight because I was trying to come to terms with the fact that, albeit accidentally, he'd died through my hand, and then, later, I'd built up another existence for myself and was..content. I want more than that now and I'm ready to fight for it."  
"What about your father?"  
"He can know I'm in Westeros, I imagine it would be hard to have him not find out if I'm going to be living with Tyrion, but he better not expect me to come to him. I don't see that happening any time soon. If he truly wanted to make amends and accept me as the person I am..I guess I'd be open for that, but I'm not holding my breath. In any case, there are more important things than him."

Brienne agreed. They had to find out how they were going to work in the real world, where there were jobs and families and friends and routines and habits. Deal with outside influences, make compromises, reacquaint themselves with their world while making room for the other one in it. It probably wasn't always going to be smooth sailing, but she had recently proven that she could deal with choppy waters, figuratively and literally. Plus, she wasn't going to have to do it all alone; Jaime was there as well and, a few days not withstanding, they'd made an awesome team so far. Come whatever may their way, she truly found herself excited about the next chapter. So she decided to stop worrying for the moment, and do what she'd done the last weeks: Take one day at a time and live in the now. After all, that approach to things had served her well. She put her arms behind Jaime's neck and pulled him against her for a kiss.

"You know," Jaime smirked, once their lips had parted, but they were still holding each other in a loose embrace, "now that we're going back to civilisation..we never officially finished our earlier truce negotiations.."  
"Oh didn't we?" Brienne asked with a smirk of her own.  
"I believe they were merely postponed. Once we reach land, get checked out and have been declared in good health and left alone, providing you're interested, I'm prepared to make a much better offer than earlier."  
"Earlier was already pretty good an offer."  
"It was, but I'm sure we can do even better."  
"Well, you did say you would get me chocolate if you could.."  
"Not what I had in mind, but maybe we can work that in. Somehow. How do you feel about chocolate syrup?" Jaime asked, winking at her with a salacious grin. Brienne threw her head back and laughed.

  
They were off the island, but apparently their adventures were just beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this in my head (and in my word docs) for so long now (*cough* 2017 *cough*), and I'm so glad I got to finish at least one of the 'bits and pieces and ideas' that are taking up space there. Thank you for reading, for coming along on this island ride, and for all the kudos and the nice things you had to say.  
#JB5eva
> 
> 1\. What I listened to (many, many, MANY times ) while writing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0EIeSyfyp4  
2\. fun fact: The line "While I am a man of many talents, obstetrics is not one of them" was one of the first lines I came up with..  
3\. I'd like to say thank you to @DanyelN who took the time to read the 95% I had done when I was stuck and whose enthusiasm really lit a fire under my butt to finish.


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